


Destinations

by phantisma



Series: Broken [12]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-23
Updated: 2012-09-23
Packaged: 2017-11-14 20:18:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/519133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantisma/pseuds/phantisma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ash and Andrew have been found, and the Winchesters are preparing to go after them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The kitchen lights hurt his eyes and Sam shielded them with one hand as he sank to the seat Dean was holding for him. Pastor Jim was bunking Gabe down to sleep off the pain meds. His father was brewing coffee. That left Caleb and Dean and him, all staring at the plain, worn wood of the table, not sure what to say or do.

Sam chewed on the inside of his lip. He’d dreamed that Gabe had been hurt. In fact, most of the images from the dream were vague, but the long wound, its t-shirt bandage and something that looked like it was an animal, but not, those were all very clear.

Dean cleared his throat. “You okay, Caleb?”

Caleb sat slowly and nodded. “Yeah. I’m fine. Just…Gabe. It was stupid. But we put it down before it could get back to anyone.” He hid his hands under the table. “We were pretty far out, didn’t think we’d be seen. Didn’t count on them…that…whatever the hell it was.”

“You said berserker?” Sam asked, closing his eyes. There was a sharp pain behind his eyes and he shook his head trying to escape it.

“It was weird.” Caleb said. “I haven’t seen many, but this wasn’t like any berserker I ever saw. It looked like one, but it acted…like a person. It went after Gabe when his gun jammed. Got that slice in before I emptied my clip into it.” He exhaled. “Took a lot to put it down.”

“Berserkers never go down easy.” John said, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “But you say it moved like a person?”

Caleb nodded. “It made choices based on which one of us was the easier target, the terrain…it thought the attack through, calculated.”

“Gabe’s asleep.” Jim said as joined them.

Sam felt his father’s eyes and looked up. “I’m okay, Dad.”

“You don’t look okay.”

Sam made a face and shook his head. “I’ve got a bit of a headache. I just need some food.”

Dean patted his shoulder. “Right, that’s what we came up for. I’ll get it.”

“Up?” Caleb asked, his eyes narrowing as they swept over Sam.

Sam looked down at himself and realized he was still dressed in the white robe from the exorcism. “Yeah…we…”

“Sam was helping me with something.” Jim offered, setting coffee mugs on the table. “I have a couple of rooms set up downstairs and he wasn’t up to the stairs when we were done.”

Caleb didn’t seem to think anything was wrong with that explanation, to Sam’s relief. Jim poured coffee, and Sam drew the cup close to his face. “So…Caleb…what’s this about Ash and Andrew?” Jim asked.

Caleb nodded once, wrapping his hands around the cup in front of him. “We followed the trail until it went cold. Wasn’t far. Then we hunted for a while. Gabe never did explain what he would do on that damn computer of his. But he was on it all the time when we weren’t hunting.”

Caleb sipped at his coffee. “Then one day he says that we needed to check something out. Demonic signs, livestock mutilations, people gone missing, people gone crazy. That was the start. We never found the cause, but he laughed that night when he was doing his thing on the computer. Two days later he pointed us somewhere else. Then to Marion.”

“Marion?” Jim frowned at Caleb and looked up at John. “There’s a lot of history there, a desecrated church that was used in Civil War Days by a demonic cult for sacrifices and possessions.”

Caleb nodded. “At first it was just what you’d expect. Then Gabe wanted to go to the local bar. We sat in the back and he watched the place for hours. Three nights we did that. Then…there he was.”

“Ash?” Dean asked as he set a plate in front of Sam.

“No…the other one. Billy.” Caleb drank his coffee and looked up at them. “He got good and drunk too. Came in with some other guys. Two of them were obviously there to protect him, get him home. We followed them. That was what? Three days ago…I think.”

“Did you get a look at their operation?”

Caleb put his cup down and stood up to pace. “Not up close. We got an address and Gabe worked his tech magic, found out that the address has been receiving a lot of shipments. Computer chips, electronics equipment…and exotic imports, from China, Japan, places I’ve never heard of.” He leaned against the counter. “We couldn’t risk being seen. Ash and Andrew both know us. Billy’s the only one who’s never seen either of us, that we knew of. So we didn’t get close, just watched from afar. Until yesterday.”

Sam squinted toward Caleb. “What changed?”

“Gabe wanted to see if he could hack their back door. There was a power reading on the far side of the property, and he figured he might be able to slip some sort of surveillance on them. So we went looking.”

“And found a berserker instead.” John finished. Caleb nodded.

“When Gabe’s awake I’ll take a look at what he’s got.” Sam said, stretching and putting down his fork. “Right now I could use a shower and some clean clothes.”

Dean looked at Sam as he stood, the question clear in his eyes. Sam shook his head lightly and reached for his cane. He was capable of handling it himself. In fact, he felt stronger than he had in a long time, emotionally at least. He left the kitchen and headed for the parish house’s bathroom. He flicked on the light, not surprised to see the small duffle Dean had packed sitting on the counter.

It was nearly two in the morning. Jim had to be exhausted, after the ritual, plus dealing with Dean and their Dad…and yet, Sam could hear him talking with Caleb, walking him to one of the spare rooms. Sam smiled as he started the water. Ever the consummate host…priest…though he seldom thought of Jim that way.

Sam pulled the robe off, folding it almost reverently before setting it on the counter. He’d balked at the idea of putting it on. Hell, he’d balked at the idea of the exorcism, more than he let any of them know. It was hard, walking into that circle alone. Even though Dean and his father were there, he knew that at that moment he was alone.

Dean would never understand that, Sam knew. He stepped in under the hot water and dropped his head back, letting it wash over him. It hurt. He remembered telling his father that he hadn’t expected it to hurt when the demon was inside him. He kind of expected the exorcism to hurt though.

It was like a low burn, deep in his belly. Like the words boiled it all down and left it simmering there, pulling the last vestiges of its presence from his blood and yanking it out through his navel. Parts of himself came with it…He’d never be the normal man he’d tried to be with Jessica.

Dean’s touch was like fire, searing into his skin, solidifying his presence, marking Sam’s soul when it was laid bare on the altar. More than any mark in his skin could ever be. It cooled some when the water flowed over him, when Jim spoke the words of absolution…cooled, calmed…and while a part of him may never believe himself worthy of forgiveness, the rest of him relaxed into it, letting go of the death grip he’d had on his own self-loathing.

Sam let the hot water beat on the back of his neck and sighed. Everything felt different now. Different. It was almost like his senses had been heightened. Like everything was sharper.

And then there were the dreams. He knew what had happened to Gabe. He almost knew that when they did go after Ash and Andrew, the big red building that looked like a barn didn’t house any cows or horses, and it was the first right turn off the main road after the dairy farm.

Sam shook his head. It was just a dream. Heightened awareness and stuff like that. It didn’t mean anything. He sighed again and rinsed the shampoo from his hair. Dean was hovering outside the bathroom door. Sam could just about feel him. He turned off the water and reached for a towel, scrubbing it over himself before he slung it around his waist and opened the door.

Sure enough, Dean was leaning on the wall. “You were in there a long time.”

There was a hint of uncertainty in his voice. It reminded Sam of how Dean had been when he first started to overcome the programming. “I was enjoying the hot water.”

Dean nodded, his eyes skipping over Sam and back to his face. “You okay?”

Sam shook his head and turned to wipe the mirror so he could shave. “I’m not going to break, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“You seem better.” Dean said tentatively.

“I feel better.” Sam lathered up his face and dragged the razor over his jaw line. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not just pretending?” Dean wasn’t looking at him. Sam sighed.

“Pretending was your thing, Dean. Honestly, it’s all happened too fast for me to pretend anything.”

Dean stood away from the wall, his hands in his pockets. “Everyone’s gone back to bed.”

Sam nodded and rinsed the razor. “You can go get some sleep if you want.”

“What about you?”

“Not tired. I slept, remember?” Sam glanced at him. Dean looked ready to pass out. The dark circles under his eyes were worse than they’d been since the cabin. “Go sleep Dean. I’m fine. I don’t need you hovering over me.”

Dean’s hand slid down Sam’s arm and he leaned his head against Sam’s shoulder. “I just worry.” He said it so softly, Sam wasn’t sure he heard it. There was more to the worry though than there had been…an uncertainty about what the exorcism had changed.

Sam took a step back, drawing Dean into the bathroom and closing the door. His hand cupped Dean’s face and he brushed a tender kiss over his forehead before leaning down to kiss him in earnest. “Nothing to worry about,” Sam whispered. Dean’s eyes fluttered open and for a moment they were the open, vulnerable eyes of before. Sam’s stomach wrenched and he drew Dean in for a hug. “I’m really better Dean. I promise.”

Dean nodded against his shoulder before he pulled back and dragged a hand over his face. “So…what are you going to do?”

Sam shook his head. “Read maybe? Don’t worry about me. You just get some sleep.”

 

Gabe woke sore and disoriented, unaccustomed to waking up alone. The twin bed was comfortable enough, but without Caleb it seemed empty. He sat up slowly and stretched everything but his wounded arm. The stitches felt tight and itchy.

He shivered and looked around the room for his shirt. Pastor Jim had helped him take it off before settling him into the bed. It was no where to be seen, but his bag was sitting by the door. Caleb must have brought it in from the car. It took a minute to get it open with just the one arm working, but he managed and rummaged around inside for a clean shirt.

Getting it on was nearly as difficult, the dull ache in his arm awakening to a sharp pain as he manipulated it enough to get the t-shirt on. He ran his good hand through his growing hair and considered himself presentable. He made his way to the kitchen, surprised to find Sam there with some books open and coffee ready.

“Morning.”

Sam looked up, squinting a little and looking around them as if expecting someone else. “Morning. How’s the arm?”

Gabe shrugged, then winced. “Sore.”

Sam got up and poured coffee, then went to the fridge. “You’re still drinking it with cream and three sugars, right?”

Gabe grinned a little that he remembered. “Yeah…if the caffeine doesn’t keep me awake, the sugar will.”

Sam chuckled and put the creamer on the table next to the sugar. “Here. They’re fairly mild, but should take the edge off.” Sam set a bottle of pills on the table. Gabe reached for it, opening it and dumping one of the three remaining pills onto his hand.

“How’s the leg?”

Sam reached for the bandage, frowning a little. “It’s still sore, and my stamina is next to gone…but better.”

Gabe swallowed the pill dry, then reached with the arm Sam wasn’t poking to pour cream into his cup. “We’re going to need to get you some antibiotics.” Sam said, making a face at Gabe’s arm. “Maybe Jim has some. Our kit’s out.” He re-bandaged the wound and went back to his seat, picking up his coffee to sip at.

“You look like you’re in full research mode.” Gabe said after a few seconds of silence and Sam gave him a half-hearted shrug. “I remember the look; twenty books stacked on or near the table, five or six open, a notebook full of scribbles than notes. Reminds me of senior year.”

Sam laughed and closed two of the books. “Yeah…only then it was straight up science, not this hodgepodge bastardization of science and magic.” He sighed and cracked his neck. “Caleb gave us the overview last night. I’ve been trying to find something to explain what you saw.”

“Find anything?”

Sam shook his head. “Not really. But if I had more to go on…”

“Well, I have a theory.” Gabe said, leaning forward.

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Now, why doesn’t that surprise me?”

Gabe chuckled and sipped his coffee. “Okay. I think it **was** a berserker, only I think it was a new, advanced form of one.”

“I’m listening?”

“The shipments that I was tracking…the ranch has been getting huge shipments of tech stuff along with enchanted objects from around the world. They’re also receiving large amounts of salt and chalk and other implements of working with demons. What if what they’re doing is building hybrids? The old organization has a sideline in assassins.”

“But berserkers are hard to control.” Sam said, obviously following Gabe’s train of thought. “If they could find a way to keep more of the person in charge during the possession, they’d be more easily controlled, organized.”

Gabe nodded. “I also think that maybe they’re trying to use dual possession. That thing that we took down was obviously possessed by a bear spirit, but there was something else too…a green spark to his eyes…and a distinctive smell of sulfur on his breath.”

“Been kissing demons again Gabe?” Dean asked, suddenly behind him. Gabe started when Dean ruffled his hair.

“Dean—I—“ Gabe had been told Dean was more himself, but he couldn’t help but remember that the last time he had seen him, Dean was catatonic…and before that, he’d hardly been the Dean Winchester who had become his surrogate older brother.

“What did you do to your hair?” Dean asked after pouring himself a cup of coffee. “Not that I’m complaining. Maybe you could get Sam to do something with his.”

“I happen to like mine just like it is.” Sam said, offering Gabe a smile. “Gabe made a grand sacrifice to capture the man responsible for what happened to us.” Sam’s eyes flashed at Dean and Gabe saw Dean respond, the tiniest of adjustments in his stance, the vaguest of nods in Sam’s direction. “Isn’t that right, Gabe?”

“It wasn’t all that. Besides, it thrilled my Dad.” He ran his hand over it self consciously. “And I have never kissed a demon,” he said belatedly, hoping to steer the conversation away from anything that would make Dean uncomfortable.

“As I recall, Dean,” Sam said, “it was you who did the kissing. Gabe here was the innocent victim.”

Dean snorted. “That isn’t how I remember it. I came into the room and she had Gabe on the floor, sticking her tongue down his throat.”

“She tripped me.” Gabe squeaked, laughing. “Besides, I got her into the trap, didn’t I?”

Dean ruffled his hair again and pulled the chair out to sit. “Yes you did. I’ll give you that. Always come through in a pinch.”

It was slightly disconcerting, but Gabe decided he liked seeing Dean act like himself again. His eyes flashed up to Sam’s, but Sam was only looking at Dean, as if Dean was the only thing in the world that mattered. After everything they’d been through, Gabe figured that might well be the truth for him.

 

John lowered himself down to sit on the steps in front of the church beside Dean. “Think we’ve got enough to head out there?”

Dean looked up at him and shrugged. “Gabe’s got a lot of intel, but none of it tells us specifically what they’re up to.”

John nodded and leaned back on the steps. “He thinks they’re making assassins.”

“I don’t care what they’re making,” Dean said, his voice strained. “It’s time we put an end to this.”

“We can’t go running in there,” John said, though he hated himself for it. “We have to be smarter than them.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “Isn’t that usually Sam’s line?”

John smiled. “What does Sam think?”

Dean frowned. “I don’t really know. He’s…been different since…well…since.”

“Isn’t that what we were aiming for?”

“I guess. Just not sure different is better.”

“Has he said anything?”

Dean shook his head. “We haven’t been alone since Gabe and Caleb got here.”

“Where is he now?”

“Last I saw, he was with Gabe in the kitchen, pulling up public blueprints of the ranch.”

 

 

Sam shook his head as he closed the bedroom door behind him. He was shaking with uncontrollable fury. It came on him unexpectedly as he was working with Gabe. They had brought up the surveillance pictures he and Caleb had taken, and just the grainy suggestion of Ash greeting his own brother had done it.

His head flooded with images of what had been done to him and to Dean and the fury flushed through him. He’d barely gotten out of the kitchen before it was too much. He stumbled through the hall and into the room he’d always shared with Dean when they were here.

He’d never felt so much anger. He panted and clenched his fists. New images filled his head, scenes of destruction, chaos…wild men draped in animal skins, people dead and ripped open. Sam grabbed at his head and grimaced as the pictures intensified and there was Dean, his stomach torn open, laying over the dead body of their father.

Sam screamed and punched the wall, denting the drywall before grabbing the end of the bed and slamming it into the wall. On the other side of the room the window shattered. Sam squeezed his eyes closed and doubled over, yelling as his knees buckled.

Behind him the door burst open and Dean was there, arms wrapped around him, voice grating against his skin like it was a razor.

“Sammy! Sammy, can you hear me?”

He managed to nod, his fists balled against his temples.

“What’s wrong?”

Dean’s hands held Sam’s face, turning him toward Dean. Somehow the touch was soothing. Sam could feel the rage dissipating. “Dean….don’t let go.”

“Right here Sammy. I’m right here.” Dean’s hands rubbed over his skin.

It took a few minutes for Sam to feel like he was in control again and lift his head up to look at his brother. He was still shaking, inside and out. Random images flashed through him. “Dean.”

“Yeah, Sam. Can you tell me what that was?”

Sam hugged himself and shook his head. “Angry…then I saw…stuff…you and Dad…dead. It was…I don’t know what it was.”

“You trashed the room.” Sam looked up. The bedding was ripped open and the night table cracked in half. Glass glittered from nearly every surface.

“I didn’t do that.” Sam said, confused. His head and hand hurt. “I punched the wall.” He held his hand up to look at and Dean took it in his hands, turning it over to look at. “I shoved the bed. I didn’t touch the window.”

“How do you explain it?”

Sam shook his head, but it sent spirals of pain through him. “Don’t know.”

“Hey…you okay?” Dean’s hands were back on his face, brushing comfort over Sam’s skin.

“Hurts.”

Dean nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. Let’s get you some place to lay down.”

“Dark.” Sam said as Dean helped him to his feet.

“Downstairs?”

Sam nodded, leaning on Dean as they went. He didn’t know what had happened, didn’t understand what was happening to him. As Dean helped him down to the bed, he knew only that he was exhausted and he fell asleep quickly.

 

 

Dean chewed on his thumb nail while his father surveyed the damage. “Sam did all of this?”

Dean nodded. “I’m worried about him Dad. He was…scary.”

“What triggered it?”

Dean shrugged. “Gabe said they were looking at images he and Caleb shot at the ranch. Then he just hit the table and left the room. I heard him screaming. By the time I got here, the place looked like this.”

“He said he was angry?”

Dean spit out the fingernail and nodded. “Yeah. Angry…and seeing things, or something.”

John frowned at him. “Seeing things?”

“I don’t know. He had dreams last night, about Gabe being hurt. And he said something about seeing you and me dead.”

John rubbed a hand over his face. “Maybe it’s just…overload. I mean…it’s been so much….and then the whole exorcism and finding out about Ash…maybe he just needs time to rest.”

“He’s not going to like that. He’s going to want to come with us.”

John turned to look at him. “Us?”

“You don’t think you’re leaving me out of this, do you?” Dean shook his head and moved toward the door. “Not a chance in hell Dad. Not a chance in hell.”

 

 

He had never had a lot of use for churches. Not for personal reasons. John Winchester was a practical man, not an emotional one. He never begrudged those who needed what the church provided, but he had never been one to sit in the open pews after midnight, pondering where it all went wrong or how he was going to survive.

And yet, here he was.

Sitting alone in the sanctuary, holding his head and praying for something to make this whole thing easier…something to ease the guilt ripping him up…something to show him the right way, the right next move.

He’d drugged his sons. Both of them. Put it in their food. Sam was asleep in the basement room. Dean was asleep in the restored bedroom. Gabe and Caleb were…somewhere, presumably asleep.

And John was here, third pew from the altar, his eyes on the polished wood of the pew in front of him. It was all so much. The guilt, the fear, the anguish when he looked at them.

In the months they’d been apart he’d been able to hide it all, bury the images of his sons being brutalized, bury the memory of them cracking under the pressure, disguise his own brokenness under the gruff John Winchester exterior…and now…now he just didn’t know what to do.

He knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to arm himself to the teeth and go after Andrew. He wanted to hunt him into the ground, hurt him, empty a clip into his extremities, practice his carving skills on his back, before finishing this thing once and for all.

Not that any of that would make Sam or Dean whole again. He had to face the fact that they never would be. They could pretend, they could forget, but they’d never be the men they were before Dean was taken from him.

John sighed and rubbed at stinging eyes. Dean was right about Sam not liking the idea of being left behind. John didn’t want either of them in on the hunt, but he knew better than to think he would get away without him.

Unless he left now.

He knew where they were. He knew where to get his hands on weapons. He knew enough to know it was probably a really stupid idea to go in there alone…but maybe he’d have the advantage of surprise.

John lurched to his feet. He’d been sitting around for far too long, letting evil grow. It wasn’t in his nature to wait. He took a deep breath and headed to the basement. He knew where Jim kept his weapons, and he knew Jim wouldn’t object to his borrowing a few.

A half hour later, John had a duffle bag filled with weaponry in the back seat of the Impala. He considered leaving a note, but they would all know where he’d gone once they discovered the missing guns. He bowed his head and offered up the briefest prayer for his boys’ safety and climbed in behind the wheel.

This time, he was following his instincts.

 

Sam tossed on the small bed, trapped in a nightmare loop of his father leaving, fighting, dying. He sat up and the room spun around him. He heaved with the turmoil, his stomach lurching, his head pounding.

He got up and reached for his cane, limping to the stairs and crawling up them in a panic that he wasn’t entirely certain of. He knew his father was gone. Somehow.

He was breathing heavily as he came into the sanctuary. The banks of candles were burning low, and in the dim light he thought he saw movement. “Hello?”

There was no answer, but he saw something. He rubbed at his eyes and squinted into the shadows. Motion, but no form. He shook his head and limped out into the hall. He was seeing things. Something was wrong. He moved to the front doors, not surprised that the Impala was missing when he peered out into the church parking lot.

“Fuck.” Sam muttered, pulling the door closed. He knew his father had gone after Andrew. He knew beyond a doubt. He limped down the hall and into hall that led out of the church and into the parish house. Dean was going to be pissed.

His stomach rumbled and he made a face. He’d picked at his dinner, not really hungry, but knowing better than to not eat at all. It always set Dean off on one of his over-bearing protective streaks. So Sam had picked and made it look like he was eating. Dean had been distracted enough by the conversation that he hadn’t noticed.

Sam had noticed however how Dean started yawning half way through dinner and how he’d crawled off to bed right after. He suspected his father hadn’t wanted to deal with the events of the day and had drugged the food. Not that he begrudged him. In fact, he’d considered asking for a sedative himself.

He couldn’t explain the anger or the results. If he was totally honest with himself, it kind of scared him. The nightmares, the images that seemed to be at least partially true…the way the window shattered…He stopped, turning to look over his shoulder. He felt like there were eyes following him…voices whispering his name.

Sam shook his head and laughed at himself. He was losing his mind. It was probably just his over active imagination, stimulated by the exorcism and the arrival of Gabe and Caleb. Sam opened Dean’s door and watched him sleep for a minute before shuffling into the room, shutting the door softly.

He dropped his jeans and crawled in beside his brother, drawing him close so that he was spooned up behind him. Sam closed his eyes and willed sleep to come back. Sleep without dreams…give his brother something warm to wake up to before he flew into a fury at their father leaving without him…them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam sends Dean and Caleb after John, and tries to deal with the changes he can't understand. Gabe gets teased a little. John finds himself in trouble.

Dean woke to the feeling of Sam glomped onto his back, his dick stiff with morning wood and pushing suggestively against Dean’s thigh. Last he knew he’d been in bed alone. He pushed his hips back and Sam groaned. “Sleeping,” Sam mumbled.

“Not anymore.” Dean wiggled against him and Sam gasped.

“Not fair.” 

“You’re the one with his dick pressing against me.” Dean said, glancing over his shoulder to where Sam’s face moved against Dean’s neck. 

“Not my fault.” 

Dean shook his head. Sam’s eyes were still closed, but when Dean reached for his cock they shot open. “Dean!”

“Sam?” Dean smirked as Sam shivered, then his hands were pushing at Dean’s.

“We’re at Pastor Jim’s.”

“You have a good memory.” Dean stroked Sam’s cock and Sam moaned, his eyes slipping closed before he opened them quickly.

“It’s…Dean…not here.”

“Why not here?” Dean asked, not stopping his stroking.

Sam’s hips bucked forward and Dean knew that as much as he might protest, Sam wasn’t going to stop either. “Want you to fuck me Sammy.” Dean whispered, letting go of Sam long enough to pull his boxers down. 

Sam’s hand slid down Dean’s back and over the now naked round of his ass. “Dean…it’s…you have to be quiet.”

“I can be quiet.” Dean said, rolling so that he was more on his stomach. He gasped a little when Sam’s finger entered him. “Faster Sammy…faster.”

“Calm down.” Sam hissed, though he worked a second finger in. “You got any lube?”

Dean fumbled around on the floor for his jeans, grunting as Sam worked his fingers in and out. Finally his hand closed on denim and he brought them up to fish the tube out of his back pocket. He tossed it over his shoulder and Sam rolled his eyes. “Should have known.”

Sam’s fingers left him, then came back slick and cool and it was only a few seconds before his weight shifted and Dean felt the thick head of Sam’s cock at his entrance. “Yeah Sammy…come on…”

He sank in slow and Dean hissed as he was filled and Sam’s weight lay against him. He pushed back and Sam’s hands gripped his waist as he pulled back out. There was a moment of panic, but Dean pushed it away. He concentrated on the feeling of _Sam_ , the familiarity of his smell and his touch, his breath against Dean’s neck. The moment passed and Dean adjusted his position so Sam’s next stroke hit his prostate. “God…Sam….go harder…”

Sam grunted in response, but his next thrust was harder, and Dean felt his own cock twitch in response. “Dean…” He felt Sam stiffen, his fingers bruising against hip bones, then the rush of come. 

Dean’s cock was hard and begging, and he was prepared to handle it himself. Sam slipped out and Dean rolled over, his hands reaching for his cock, but to his surprise, Sam slapped his hands away and he grinned up at Dean. It had been a while since Sam had been willing to even touch Dean’s dick…and even then, Dean knew he did it only to convince him that everything was okay.

Sam looked like he meant it, but Dean had a niggling doubt that this was a show for his benefit, proof that Sam was okay, that the exorcism had worked. 

Sam licked up the underside without losing eye contact. His eyes sparkled. Dean groaned as he slipped his lips around the head, his tongue playing with the slit just before he slid that heat down the length of Dean’s dick and back up. “Fuck, Sammy…”

He sucked hard and Dean bucked up off the bed, thrusting deeper than he meant to. Dean stiffened and looked, but Sam’s eyes were closed and he didn’t seem bothered by it, just adjusted his position and opened his throat. Dean’s eyes rolled closed as Sam swallowed and purred and his one hand squeezed Dean’s balls. That was it…Dean thrust up again and came. Sam sucked and swallowed and followed Dean back to the bed, licking up to the tip. 

Sam frowned at him. “What’s that look for?”

“What look?”

“That look…like I grew horns or something.”

Dean shook his head. He was concerned, but didn’t know it was showing on his face. He pushed Sam and sat up. “I don’t have a look. You’re imagining things.” He grimaced as he stood. He hadn’t meant to say that. “I’m just hungry…and now my ass hurts.”

Sam snorted at that. “Your fault. You’re the one begging me to fuck you.”

“You were the one with the hard-on poking me.” Dean found his jeans again and pulled them on. “I’m hungry.” He wanted to change the subject, wanted this pretending to be okay, to be real.

“You stink like sex. Go shower. I’ll make breakfast.”

Sam got up from the bed, and pulled on the jeans he’d left at the end of the bed, but froze at the door. “Dad.”

Dean turned. “What about Dad?”

Sam shook his head. “He’s gone.”

“What do you mean, gone?”

Sam shook his head, the look on his face like he was trying to trace some elusive memory that was just out of reach. “I woke up…dreams.” He rubbed his face and shook his head. “I don’t know. He’s just…gone.”

Dean pushed past him, running barefoot through the hall and out the side door. The Impala was gone. Dean scratched the back of his head and turned to look at Sam. “Maybe he just…”

Sam shook his head. He was certain. Dean stormed back to him. “Okay, what the hell is going on with you, Sam? First Gabe, then the room…now this?”

He seemed dazed, but he blinked when Dean grabbed him. “I don’t know Dean. I just don’t know.”

“Well…we need to figure out where he—“

“I think it’s obvious where.” Sam sighed and shook his head. “Go shower, I’ll make breakfast and wake Jim and Caleb. Dad’s got a head start, but you should be able to catch up with him before he does anything stupid.”

Dean squinted at his brother. It was clear Sam had already determined he wasn’t going with him. Whether that was because Sam thought he should stay behind or because he just didn’t want to argue with Dean over it, he couldn’t say. 

Sam was changed, that much was obvious…but Dean still wasn’t certain what that change was all about. Dean slammed through his shower and getting dressed, forgoing shaving all together to get into the kitchen where Jim and Caleb were yawning their way through a cup of coffee while Sam put the finishing touches on eggs and toast for everyone. 

“So we’re sure he’s gone?” Jim asked as Dean sat.

“Car’s gone.”

“Half your weapons stash is gone too.” Sam said as he set plates on the table. “He’s armed, heavily armed.”

“What the hell is he thinking, going off alone?” Dean asked through clenched teeth.

“He’s thinking that you boys have been through enough and that he’s doing his job. Finally.” Jim answered, picking up his fork. He closed his eyes briefly and when he looked up all eyes in the room were on him. “He feels incredibly guilty about how it went down before. About not being the one to kill the man responsible. He wants to be the one who sees this through.”

Dean shook his head. Stupid. Damn, stubborn Winchester pride. He didn’t say it out loud, but from the look Sam gave him, he didn’t really have to. “It doesn’t matter what he was thinking. You’ll just have to go after him.” Sam said, his eyes locked on Dean’s. “You and Caleb,” he amended, glancing aside at Caleb who looked up at him.

“What about me?” Gabe asked suddenly from the doorway.

Sam shook his head. “I need you here. We’re going to figure out what it is they’re up to on that ranch.”

Dean watched Sam set another plate on the table for Gabe. There was more, something Sam wasn’t telling him. Something he wasn’t going to say in front of the others. 

“We’ll follow them once we’ve got a few answers,” Sam continued, leaning against the counter. He turned and caught Dean’s eye again. “You have to keep him safe, keep him alive…until Gabe and I come.”

He didn’t like the look in his brother’s eye. Like he was sending Dean off on an impossible mission…like he expected to never see him again. Dean closed his mind to that thought and dug into his eggs. The sooner they finished, the sooner they’d get on the road.

 

Marion didn’t have a lot of cover. Only the post office and tiny grocery store really made it a town. It was a loose length of ranches and farms stretched out in a hub around the single building at a four-way stop that sported the local bar, that doubled as a meeting hall, the grocery store and government offices.

The Impala stood out like the proverbial sore thumb as John drove past the building and headed west. It rumbled and roared as he pushed it past the ending of the paved road toward the ranch where his quarry waited.

He had no real plan. Despite his warning to Dean about heading off after these men without one, John had come, needing action…needing to shake off the cobwebs of the last months…he was tired of waiting. 

He saw the buildings rise up out of the horizon, just like the photos Gabe had taken. He knew that somewhere on this property were the men…the last remaining remnants of those who had broken his boys.

A cold fury was building inside him. It leeched into his blood as he drove past the cheery entrance to the property, with its wrought iron sign reading “Arlish Farms” and its sunflowers. He clenched his teeth and fought the desire to just turn down that dirt lane, barrel through that gate, and ram the car into the nearest building.

That would only get him killed. No. He had to be smarter than that. Had to think like his prey. Like a hunter gone terribly wrong.

 

“You’re sure about this?” Dean asked as he threw his duffle into the back of Caleb’s car.

“Not really, no.” Sam said.

“There’s something you’re not telling me.” Dean didn’t ask it. Sam didn’t deny it. He was silent for a minute, his eyes on the ground.

Finally he seemed to decide something and nodded. “Promise me you won’t freak out.”

“I’ll try.”

Sam nodded again. “Okay. Something is happening to me. I need to stay here and figure it out, or I won’t be any help to you.”

“Something? What something?” Dean reached for his hand and Sam licked his lips.

“The dreams. They’re more than…That night, after the exorcism? I saw the thing that attacked Gabe. I saw him get hurt. I knew they were coming.” He played with a stone with the toe of his shoe. “I knew Dad was gone before I even came upstairs. I’ve seen…other things.”

Dean crossed his arms, his patience waning. “Sam. You’ve always had an overactive imagination.”

Sam chuckled and looked up finally. “And the bedroom? Was that my overactive imagination?”

“You did it. You just don’t remember.” Dean felt his stomach drop. 

“I don’t know which is worse, believing that I could do damage like that without remembering, or without knowing how.” Sam said. He looked thoughtful. “You need to go to Dad, while I figure it out. You need to keep him out of the barn, and stay away from a circle of oak trees.”

Dean frowned at his brother. “I don’t understand?”

Sam made a face. “It isn’t clear. Something happens—happened in the barn. He…” Sam closed his eyes and shook his head. “Just keep him out of it.”

“And the oak trees?”

This time Sam looked away. “Just stay away, okay?”

“Is that where you saw us die?” Dean asked gently.

After a long silence Sam nodded. “I don’t know what’s real and what isn’t. That’s part of what I need to work out.” Sam reached out and pulled Dean close, pressing a quick kiss to his forehead. “I’ll catch up. Just…stay in one piece until I do.”

“I don’t like leaving you.”

The church doors opened and Sam moved away. “I know.”

Dean glanced up at where Gabe and Caleb were saying goodbye, then grabbed Sam’s hand and dragged him to the trunk of the car. “Just tell me that you’re okay. That it really did….something.”

Sam’s eyes dropped and he pressed his lips together. “I’m okay, Dean. I’m…not sure how or what, but…or whatever….but I’m better…my head’s more together.”

Dean nodded, not entirely convinced. “I’ll call you when we catch up with him.”

Sam patted his shoulder and moved away, joining Gabe as he came to the bottom of the stairs and Caleb left his side. They stood side by side watching the car pull away. When it was gone, Sam sighed and glanced at Gabe. “So. You and Caleb?”

Gabe’s face paled, then went through confused, shocked and embarrassed. “God, does _everybody_ know?”

Sam laughed and ruffled his hair. “No…Dad says your father hasn’t figured it out.”

Gabe moaned and covered his face with his hands. 

“It’s okay, Gabe. Really.” Gabe peeked out at him and Sam grinned. “I mean, it’s totally bizarre…he’s older than Dean…but it’s okay.”

“You need to stop talking now.” Gabe said, smacking Sam with his uninjured arm. 

“I mean, Caleb’s not my type…but if you’re into…you know…older guys…”

“I mean it, Sam. I’m going to hurt you if you don’t stop.” 

“He’s shorter than you too.” Sam took the stairs as quick as he could, with Gabe only a second behind him, but Gabe had taken him by the time he reached the doors.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Gabe said, pulling the door shut.

Sam chuckled and nodded to the door. He felt lighter than he had since the whole thing began. At least until the pain hit. Like a bolt of lightening slamming into his head, it crashed into him and he felt his knees give way, his hands shooting to hold his head as if it might hurtle into pieces. He gasped for air as his vision swam, light and dark, the color bleeding out of the world.

Someone was approaching, someone he should know and couldn’t place…a man, a voice…a hand was on his arm. 

“Hey, mister…you okay?”

Sam squinted up…the man was pale and vibrating…shades of grey…everything but his eyes. 

“You okay, Sammy?”

“How…how do you know my name?” Sam pulled away from him instinctively, still holding his head. His bad leg was cramped and aching, his knees sore from hitting the stone of the step.

The strange gray man with yellow eyes cocked his head. “Don’t remember me Sammy?”

His hand touched Sam’s forehead and he saw an image, a woman pinned to a ceiling, bleeding…burning. “No.” He pulled away again…but the vision didn’t stop…there was a baby crying, a man with yellow eyes looking down at him. There was screaming. “You…get away from me.”

Sam backed up further until he felt the door behind him. The man’s smile was sickening, the smell of sulfur overpowering. He licked his lips and cracked his neck. “Someone got the party started without me, didn’t they? Head hurt? Seeing things? Eh, Sammy?”

“Don’t call me that.” Sam pulled himself up to his feet. The pounding in his head was intense.

“Come away from here. Let me show you what it’s meant for.”

Sam’s hand was on the door handle and he prayed that Gabe wasn’t still lurking inside. “Get away,” Sam said again, pulling on the door. It was heavy and he couldn’t seem to get it open more than a few inches. “Pastor Jim!” Sam screamed over his shoulder as sweat started to pour over his face. His breath came in great gasps and the man was reaching for him. 

Sam cringed away, not wanting the touch, knowing somehow the touch would only bring more pain, more pictures he didn’t want to see. The door pushed toward him and Sam fell into the relative darkness of the church, past Jim, who was throwing holy water at the gray man with the yellow eyes and speaking in Latin. 

He fell, landing hard on the marble floor and crawling away from the door, until the sunlight no longer reached him. Sam started when hands touched him, but they were only Jim’s. “Dark…hurts…dark.” Sam muttered, and Jim nodded, helping him onto his feet and half carrying him into the sanctuary and through to a windowless room filled with robes.

Jim helped Sam to a seat, then pulled the door closed. “Better?”

Sam nodded lightly, then grimaced as it set off the rattling pain again. “Can you tell me what that was about?”

Sam swallowed and looked up at him before closing his eyes. The room was nearly pitch black and still the little bit of light from under the door made his head reel. “D-demon?” Sam offered, remembering the sulfur.

“I got that much. I haven’t had a demon on my doorstep in an awfully long time.”

“It…knew me.” Sam said softly, rubbing now at the back of his neck. “Called me by my name. Showed me…I think…I think it was me…as a baby.”

Jim’s hands tilted Sam’s head back and he ran fingers over Sam’s head. “Did it touch you?”

“Yeah.”

“And you saw things when it did?”

Sam made a face. “I’ve been seeing things since the exorcism. This was different though.”

Jim’s hands stopped moving over Sam’s face. “What things have you been seeing?”

Sam shrugged, feeling suddenly very exposed, even in this dark little closet. “Dreams. Last night in the sanctuary, I was sure I wasn’t alone.” He pulled away from Jim’s hands and sighed. “I’m not sure what’s going on.” He tried to stand. This sitting still was starting to make him feel…weak all over again.

“It said something about showing me what it was meant for.” Sam sighed. “I think…I think the exorcism set something loose in side me. Something that’s been there, waiting.”

“Sam, let’s not jump to conclusions.” Jim’s hand was on his shoulder. “You’ve been through a lot. You’ve been through more than anyone should have to go through.”

“It’s real, Pastor Jim. I know it is.” Sam rubbed his hands over his face. “I don’t know what it is, exactly. I just know it’s real.”

Jim nodded. “Okay, Son. Okay. I’m just saying, let’s take it slow, figure it out together.” He rubbed a hand over Sam’s back. “For now though, I think we’ll play it safe and keep you on consecrated ground, okay?”

“Yeah. Okay.”

 

“So…you and Gabe?” Dean asked when the quiet was too quiet and the radio yielded only static.

Caleb smirked a little. “Yeah, I guess.”

“You guess?” Somehow the answer miffed Dean. “What does that mean?”

Caleb sighed. “We’re just taking it slow, you know?” He glanced at Dean, then put his eyes back on the road. “We’re exploring.”

Dean raised an eyebrow. He remembered exploring. He snorted. “I remember that exploring can be fun.” He remembered the first time he’d let Sam take them a step beyond kissing, past making out…the first time Sam had put his hand down Dean’s pants. Sam’d called it exploring. “But this is Gabe, we’re talking about.”

Caleb nodded. “I know.”

“He’s young.” 

“I know.”

“He’s really young.” Dean wasn’t really trying to pick a fight, but his protective older brother mode had been tapped. “And, he’s practically a Winchester.”

It was Caleb’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.” Dean’s fingers were beating out a pattern on the door. “Just…he’s like a brother.”

“And?” 

“There is no and.”

Caleb chuckled a little, but it seemed strained to Dean. “He came to me, okay? I would never have…I don’t know. He needed something, and I had it to give.”

“Okay. Forget I said anything.”

“Fine.”

Dean pulled out his cell phone and dialed his father. He wasn’t expecting him to answer, so he wasn’t surprised when he didn’t. When the tone sounded, Dean sighed. “Dad. Just sit tight. Caleb and I are on our way. Don’t go in there without backup. We’re an hour and a half out.”

He hung up, then grabbed the dashboard as Caleb slowed the car. “Maybe more,” Caleb said.

Ahead of them an overturned cattle truck blocked the entire road. Police cars lined the sides of the road, their lights flashing over wandering cows and the bloody wreckage of the ones who hadn’t survived the crash.

“Is there another way around?”

Caleb gestured at the glove box. “There’s a map in there.”

Dean slammed a hand down on the dash and yanked open the glove box to pull out the map, hoping there was another way around this mess.

 

The sky was dark with clouds and big fat drops of rain had started to fall, providing excellent cover for his movement, but helping to hide what he was seeking as well. John adjusted his jacket to keep the gun in his belt mostly dry and shifted his position in the tree. 

He was further onto the property than he had intended to go, but the trees were the only cover to be found, and he had climbed up into this one before he’d realized how exposed he’d be if anyone ventured his way.

At least the ran was washing away his scent. From his vantage point, he could see one of the main buildings, at least with the aid of Dean’s binoculars. It was an old farm house, its whitewashed walls in desperate need of paint, its windows dirty from years left unwashed. Two men sat casually on its porch, only their eyes moved with measured precision and guns lay in easy reach.

He couldn’t see much more than that between the branches and the rain. But for the moment it was enough. He’d gather some intelligence, and maybe he’d get a chance to practice his marksmanship, end the whole thing without even needing to get his hands dirty.

 

Jim closed his office door with shaking hands. He hadn’t said so to Sam, but consecrated ground wasn’t going to make a whole lot of difference if _that_ thing wanted in. He’d only ever faced a demon like that once before…and he hadn’t won so much as he’d ducked for cover and prayed very hard for divine assistance.

He’d been a young minister…and had it not been for a hunter who had driven the demon into the church yard, hoping to contain it, Jim might not have survived that night.

He stumbled to his desk and opened his drawer, withdrawing a bottle of whiskey and a glass, then forgoing the glass all together and drinking directly from the bottle. Once the shaking of his hands had calmed a little, he opened another drawer and pulled out a file folder that was nearly three inches thick.

Jim put it on his desk and folded his hands over it. They’d talked about it. About him. About Sam Winchester and the chance that he was one of _them_. They’d talked about it for years.

But he’d never shown the signs. And Jim knew, because he’d watched. From the time the boy was a year old. From the time his mother had died. He wasn’t like the others. Jim had been certain.

But everything was different now.

He opened the file, running a finger over the picture of Mary and John that was paper clipped to the inside cover. She had been a beautiful woman. Not for the first time, he regretted never knowing her. He knew from the file that she was strong and independent, fierce in friendship and love, passionate. He could see those traits in both of her boys.

Jim flipped to the back of the file and picked up a pen, making notes quickly and neatly before reaching for his phone. He hesitated with the receiver in his hand. Maybe they still had time. Maybe things wouldn’t fall apart.

Maybe.

He put the receiver back in its cradle and closed the file. Maybe he’d give Sam a few more days and see.

 

“How’s the head?”

Sam glanced up as Jim joined them, passing a bottle of Tylenol and a bottle of water. “Better. Thanks. Gabe was just going over some of the invoices with me.”

Gabe’s computer made a funny noise and Gabe lit up. “Got him now.” He pulled the computer away from Sam and tapped at the keyboard for a few seconds. 

“Gabe?”

“Just a sec. Don’t want to get caught.”

A few more seconds of clicking and licking his lips, then Gabe looked up. “It’s Ash. I figured out where he was ordering stuff. It’s taken me weeks, but I slipped a little virus into the code and little by little, every time he makes an order, it’s been working its way into his system. He just got the last of it. Now we can get a look around his network…at least until his security systems figure it out.”

“How long you figure?” Sam asked, leaning over his shoulder to peer at the screen.

“Well, I just made sure it’s dormant and set it to ring up when the system’s been idle for an hour. I figure that way we’ll have a few hours at least to poke around.”

“Very nice.” Sam said, patting Gabe’s shoulder. “I can’t believe that computer teacher ever failed you.”

Gabe pouted at him for a second. “He just hated hackers.”

“Most teachers don’t like students who show them up.” Sam countered, downing a couple of the Tylenol. “I’ve got no cell reception down here. Has Dean or my father called?”

Jim shook his head. “No. Nothing.”

“And our friend?”

“Still out front.”

“You two going to tell me what’s going on?” Gabe asked, not looking up from the computer.

“No.” Sam replied, though he said it warmly enough. “Not yet.”

Gabe raised an eyebrow, but still didn’t look up. “You’re as bad as my father.”

“Where is Allen?”

Gabe cocked his head to the side. “Last I knew he was in Washington, but that was at least two weeks ago. Said he would work his way back toward the Roadhouse. Check in.”

The little room in the church’s basement was warm with all three of them in it, but there were no windows, so Sam could control the light level, and it was just big enough for the work table. Cozy, but comfortable.

It had been almost an hour since the incident on the front steps. His head felt as though someone had used it as a speed bag, but it was getting better and his eyes had stopped watering from the strain. If he closed them for too long he could see his mother as she died, so he tried not to close them at all.

Caleb and Dean still had at least an hour’s drive, depending on how fast Caleb drove, or if he let Dean drive. Their father was already there, in Marion. For all he knew, his father was already in trouble. Sam pulled the aerial photo closer. 

The ranch wasn’t heavy with buildings. There was the farmhouse, old and standing along a ley line, doors aligned to the line which ran north to south. Further south was the barn. It too had a ley line running under it, east to west. Sam leaned closer. “That’s not good.”

“Hmm?” Jim leaned in to see what he was looking at. 

Sam pointed, from the back door of the farmhouse to the side door of the barn. “They intersect.”

Jim pulled something else closer. “That’s the old church.”

“What?” 

Jim showed Sam the map. “Back when Marion was more than a handful of farms, this was the center of town. The church stood at the intersection of the ley lines.” He pointed. “This used to be a church.”

“The one that was torn down and desecrated?” 

Jim nodded. “I might have a book upstairs that tells the story. I remember reading it. Always planned to head over that way and have a look.”

“Why put a barn there?” Sam murmured. “If they chose the spot for the history, for its association with demonic activity, why cover it with a barn?”

“To hide something?” Gabe asked, looking up. “If that’s where they’re building…whatever it is they’re building…what better way to hide on a ranch?”

Sam chewed on the inside of his lip. They were still missing something. He just couldn’t place it. He didn’t see the barn in the dream/vision. He just instinctively knew they were inside it. His father was writhing on the floor, inside a circle. He turned his head, half hoping the image would become clearer, half hoping it would go away.

“Billy.”

“What?”

Sam opened his eyes and focused on Gabe. “What kind of schooling does Ash’s brother have?”

Gabe shook his head, a little thrown off by the question. “What?”

Sam tried to curb the urgency a little. “William Harvelle. We need to know what his expertise is. We know that Ash handles their tech stuff. We know Andrew can handle the demon stuff. What about Billy?”

Gabe’s mouth opened, then closed. “I don’t know.” He looked from Sam to Jim, then back to the computer, his fingers flying. “Give me a few minutes.”

 

The rain was slowing and John moved cramped limbs, trying to keep them from seizing with the cold and the awkward position that held him in the tree. There wasn’t much activity in or around the house. The two men sat on the porch, watching. Every now and then there was movement at one of the windows. The dirt road that came in from the gate and went past the house had been empty and unused. Off to the east he knew there was another small building, probably barracks for the ranch hands. To the south was the barn.

That was where he really wanted to be. That would be where the work was getting done. But there was no way to get there. No cover. No way around.

He shifted. The wind was picking up. He blew out in frustration. They’d picked a good spot. Flat land with little tree cover, except on the far south end of the property, where Gabe and Caleb had run into the berserker. 

The rain had helped him let go of some of the anger, the surge of emotion that had brought him here. He could think a little more clearly. What he needed to do was retreat, regroup…call Jim, get a team up here to help. He looked through the binoculars one last time.

One of the men was moving, talking into a radio. There was a rumbling engine noise and he turned the binoculars toward the front gate. A large paneled truck was coming up the road. He adjusted the binoculars for a better look, then started as his sight went dark.

John dropped the binoculars, but couldn’t get his gun clear as the creature tilted its head, crouched on the branch with no way to indicate how it had gotten there. It took a swipe at him and he was falling…over backward, smacking his gun hand on a branch and feeling the gun fall way…then he hit the ground. It followed, springing from the tree like a cat, its green and black face inches from his as his vision swam and went dark.

 

Dean squirmed in his seat. He’d never been a good passenger. It made him feel helpless. He glanced again at the speedometer and Caleb sighed.

“Do you want us to get pulled over?”

“No.” Dean sulked for a minute. They’d left the scene of the wreck, found a way around and had just pulled back onto the road that would take them to Marion. He flipped open his phone and tried his father again for the fifth or sixth time in the last forty minutes. It rolled directly to voice mail. He exhaled and tried Sam instead. His too went directly to voice mail. He was probably down in the basement of the church again, in the dark where his head didn’t hurt so much.

Dean felt another pang of guilt for leaving Sam like that. Just forty eight hours before Sam had been suicidal…and now he was seeing things…and he seemed better…but Dean still hadn’t figured out if Sam was pretending or not. The sex made him think not…but the faces Sam made when he didn’t know anyone was looking made Dean think he was still pretending, at least a little.

The not knowing was killing him. That and the leaving. And no one answering their damn phones. And Caleb’s driving. The clouds and thunder didn’t help either.

Dean crossed his arms and sank into the seat. 

 

Sam let Gabe work and wandered out of the room. The air in the basement was stale and still. Without thought, he found himself in the chapel where they’d performed the exorcism.

He’d been so…tired. He couldn’t fight any more, couldn’t help falling deeper and deeper and he’d almost resented his father for grabbing a hold of him and yanking him out of the dark.

If he closed his eyes he could still feel that despair, though it had retreated. It wasn’t gone. The memories still sat thick and messy inside him…the way it felt to have that demon crawl up inside him, use him, leave him…the rape and humiliation, the beatings…the guilt of knowing that it had all happened because Robert had wanted him. It was all there.

He closed his eyes and breathed in deep. Somehow this room felt safe…even more so than the sanctuary above him. This ground was sacred. This circle hallowed by something older than the church itself. He could feel it in the marble of the floor. He moved closer to the circle and slipped out of his shoes. He wanted to feel the stone on his feet.

He stepped into the circle and felt the air close in around him, holding him. His breath came quicker as he approached the altar. It had been here that it happened. He’d felt it. The words had scrubbed through him, expunging anything that had remained of the demon…Sam’s hands pressed to the cold stone of the altar. No. Not just the demon.

With a clarity, Sam felt it again, the way the words had worked into him, the way they had torn down walls inside him, tearing out parts of him…parts he hadn’t known were there. They opened him up. The walls that had hidden him, the walls that had been put in place the night his mother died had come out too.

Sam opened his eyes, but instead of the chapel he could only see the nursery, his mother’s face. When she touched him, he could feel it. Her blue eyes burned with knowledge, with something he needed. 

Then _he_ was there. And he couldn’t feel her anymore. She was there, but his skin didn’t vibrate with the touch of her presence. He tasted blood…flat and copper and dead…and her voice screamed and the yellow eyes stared down at him. 

Sam was panting now, the fury dumping back into him as he watched her die…as his connection to her died…He closed his eyes, willing the scene to go away. He lifted his hands from the stone and clutched his head. Memory took the place of the vision…memory of hands forcing him to his knees…of nakedness and groping and fucking.

There was a flash of light and he vaguely registered that it was the banks of candles coming to light. He pushed at the memories, tried to replace them with other things…with Dean…and his father…but they barraged him…rape and beatings…Robert’s voice…

He heard screaming and crashing and was only vaguely aware that it was his own voice he heard. He stumbled around the altar to the baptismal font, plunging both hands into the holy water and dropping to his knees, forcing the Latin words through the sludge of images and terror. 

_Deus omnípotens, ut spíritus iniquitátis ámplius non hábeat potestátem in hoc fámulo tuo N. (hac fámula tua N.), sed ut fúgiat, et non revertátur: ingrediatur in eum (eam), Dómine, te jubénte, bónitas et pax Dómini nostri Jesu Christi, per quem redémpti sumus, et ab omni malo non timeámus, quia Dóminus nobiscum est: Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sæcula sæculorum_

There was a moment where it felt like everything just stopped. Sam’s panting was the only sound he could hear. His body felt like he’d fought off a pack of werewolves by himself. He licked his lips and tasted blood. 

“Sam?”

He rubbed a hand over his lips, realizing that his nose was bleeding, before turning. Jim and Gabe stood outside the circle, held outside it by a barrier that shimmered. Beyond them, the chairs that had filled the rest of the chamber were smashed into piles of kindling.

“He’s…glowing…” Gabe said.

“Sam, can you hear me?”

He nodded as he got to his feet, his eyes skipping around the circle and back to Jim. “What’s happening?”

Jim licked his lips and held up his hands. “I need you to calm down Sam.”

Sam shook his head. “I’m not sure…I don’t know what’s happening.” His face was wet with more than blood and holy water. He felt the tears. “What…that thing…the demon…it did something to me…”

“It can’t come where you are Sam. It can’t reach you there.”

“No.” Sam shook his head, trying to make it make sense. “Before…when I was a baby…it…killed my mother…and it did something to me.”

“Sam, listen to me. Your body is under a lot of strain…you need to let go, let us in…you’re going to deplete your strength and you’ll be vulnerable.”

“I’m not controlling it.” Sam knew he was right, he could feel his knees wobble, and he was getting light headed. “I don’t know how.”

“Gabe, I need you to go get me my med kit, it’s in my room. Bring pillows and blankets. Go.” Sam watched Gabe leave, a silvery trail on the floor in his wake. The room around him shimmered. He squinted, trying to see them. He knew they were there.

“Pastor Jim?” He stumbled, catching himself on the altar. 

“It’s okay, Sam. I’m not going anywhere. I need you to let me in though.”

Sam sat on the cold stone slab, his eyes rolling closed. “Tired.” He was draining, like his skin couldn’t keep him all inside, melting against the stone. Then he felt hands, gentle, stroking his forehead, helping him lay back. “Tired.”

“Sleep Son…sleep.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caleb and Dean go after John, who has discovered that he is in a very bad situation indeed. Sam takes on the YED to save Gabe...and works at controlling the changes happening to him.

The town of Marion didn’t resemble much of a town. It was nearly noon when they drove through it, headed toward the place where Gabe and Caleb had found Ash and Andrew. 

“Why doesn’t he answer his fucking phone?” Dean growled as he hung up yet again. He knew why, of course. His father was somewhere that he couldn’t answer…either hunting or worse. He was being John Winchester.

“Fuck.” He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that only got worse when they found the Impala parked just off the dirt road in a small grove of trees. His father’s cell phone was on the seat and he was no where to be seen. “Fuck.”

“You said that already.” Caleb said dryly. “I don’t think it’s helping.”

Dean gritted his teeth and didn’t respond. He scanned the trees and tried to figure out where his father would have gone first. “He probably tried to get close enough to get the lay of the land.”

Caleb nodded. “There isn’t much cover past here. There’s a small stand of trees between here and the house. You think he headed there?”

Dean checked his gun and tucked it into his waistband. “Only one way to find out, isn’t there?”

“You sure you want to go in there? Maybe we should call Pastor Jim. Let them know what we found?”

Dean nodded. “Yeah. Yeah. And Bobby. We should see if Bobby made it back to the Roadhouse. Backup isn’t a bad idea.” He pulled out his phone and dialed Sam. It was Gabe who answered the phone thought. “Gabe?”

“Hey Dean. Sam’s…asleep.” 

Dean didn’t like the hesitation. “Is he okay?”

“Yeah, fine. Just…needed to rest. Did you find John?”

“Not really. Found the car. He’s not here.” Dean watched Caleb walk a short distance away with his phone, presumably calling Bobby. “We think he went on the property to get a look.”

“Dean, don’t go in there.” Gabe said. “I’ve been able to snoop around Ash’s network. You and Caleb…they’ll rip you to shreds. He’s got his monsters prowling the perimeters. They’re not like anything you’ve ever come across.”

Dean made a face. “My father’s in there Gabe. I’m not going to sit here and twiddle my thumbs.”

“Just…give me time. I’m working on how to handle them. Just don’t go in there.”

Dean licked his lips. “I’m not going to make a promise, Gabe…but we’re trying to reach Bobby and a few others for back up. Whatever it is you’re going to do, do it fast.”

 

John was aware that he was in danger. He was being dragged. His body hurt. Sluggishly, he remembered falling out of the tree. He opened his eyes and regretted it as the flying brush made him dizzy.

He had a concussion, that much he was sure of. The one ankle felt like it might be broken. He didn’t know where he was being dragged or why. It had been enough time that he knew he wasn’t being taken to the house. They would have been there by now. Suddenly the forward motion stopped and he was dropped. 

John rolled, trying to get a look around him. “Mine.” The creature crouched next to him, tilting its head as if trying to figure him out. It had been human once. He could see that. Its face was painted or tattooed green, its hair long and matted with leaves and mud. It was…dressed…in muddy fur and draped cloth.

It poked at him with a long finger, then rolled on the ground, coming up beating on its chest. “Mine!” it bellowed, its face tilted up to the sky. There were answering shouts and screams…some human-like, others…not.

John swallowed and tried to figure out where he was. It was a dirty little glen made of trees and branches, dingy and dark. Other things were moving now, coming close. He drew his legs in, pulled out the gun in his boot, going slow.

“They’ve been trained to kill on the sight of a gun, so I’d put it down if I were you,” a voice said nearby. John whipped his head around. There was a man behind him, coming toward him. The creatures cowered away from him or rushed toward him, the entire area quivering with movement.

“Mine.” The thing wrapped its hand in John’s hair and pulled him up. “Good. Mine.”

“Yes, Jester. Good. Very good.”

The man stopped in front of him, then squatted down as if examining some sort of animal. “Once we get you healed up, you’ll make a fine addition to the zoo.”

 

“He’s sedated for now.” Jim checked the door to his study again, making sure Gabe was still off running the errands he’d sent him on. “It isn’t like anything I’ve ever seen, Jacob. The boy has no idea.”

He paced back to his desk and opened the file folder, flipping to the back. “No, I told you. Never.”

He had waited too long. Grown too fond. All the signs had pointed to Sam being one of them, even before he was born. His predecessor had watched and recorded the signs. The attack that killed Mary seemed to solidify it. But Sam had never shown any of the symptoms. 

Jim sighed and listened as Jacob talked about convening the council and assessing the situation. “I’m not going to be able to contain him while you sit around in committee and discuss it.” He sighed again. “Do what you have to, but his family is in danger and he’s been traumatized. He isn’t going to be rational about it. How can he be?” 

John was going to hate him. Kill him even. Jim closed his eyes and shook his head. “Jacob, I have a damn fucking third level demon camped out on my fucking front porch. I can’t move him…even if I could keep him sedated.” He heard Gabe and sighed again. “I have to go. Tell Francis I’ll do what I can.”

There was a knock on the door as he hung up the phone. Gabe’s blond head peeked in. “I brought lunch.”

Jim nodded. "I’ll go see if Sam’s up to eating.”

 

“Dad.” Sam sat up in the dark, surprised to find himself still on the altar. He couldn’t make the dream clear…it was cloudy and dark and his father was hurt…he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to concentrate on it, but there was something in his way.

Drugs. Pastor Jim had sedated him with something.

He shook his head, trying to clear it. Whatever it was, it was heavy. Too bad it didn’t do anything to alleviate the pain in his head. He moved to put his feet on the floor. It was cold, his feet bare. He vaguely remembered taking his shoes off…could just see them outside the marked circle.

The door opened and Jim came in. “Feeling better?”

Sam cleared his throat. “I’m not sure. You gave me something?”

“I was worried you were going to hurt yourself…or one of us.”

Sam rubbed at his temples. “Did I do that?” He pointed at the pile of ruined chairs.

Jim nodded. “I’m afraid I owe you an apology, Sam.”

Sam frowned at him. “I’m the one wrecking your furniture and your windows…putting you in danger. I should be apologizing.”

Jim looked nervous, licked his lips and stepped up to the edge of the circle. “No. I should have known. Should have felt it. I didn’t. I was too busy worrying about your father and your brother. I wasn’t paying enough attention to you.”

Sam shook his head and stood. “You did what we asked you to do. Not your fault I’m some sort of freak.”

Jim hung his head and Sam got a sense that there was a whole lot more to what the older man wanted to say. “You’re not a freak Sam. You’re not even alone. I know it must be overwhelming…I know it must be confusing. I’m here to help though. I want to help you handle this, okay?”

Sam squinted at him. “You’re starting to freak me out just a little.”

Jim smiled and held up both hands. “I don’t mean to, I assure you.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Gabe brought some lunch…a little late, but I figured you probably need to eat.”

Sam nodded. “I am hungry.” He went to step out of the circle and Jim stopped him. 

“I think you might just be better there. Gabe’s bringing the food down.”

That was enough to bring Sam up short. “Why?”

Jim didn’t meet his eyes, looked instead at the pattern in the tile. “That demon is still outside…and he’s not alone. The church itself won’t keep him out long.”

Sam put his hands on his hips. “What are you saying?”

Jim touched his shoulder, stepped forward so Sam had to step back. “You need to stay calm. We don’t need another incident like before.”

“Before?” Sam’s eyes flicked to the chairs and he nodded. “Right.”

“You’re vulnerable right now, Sam.”

“Vulnerable?” He looked around the room. He didn’t feel vulnerable…other than the remnants of the drug in his system. He felt stronger than he’d felt in a long time. 

“I don’t know that I can explain everything.” Jim said. “There are secrets I’m sworn to keep.” The door opened again and Gabe came in, carrying take out.

Sam met his eyes and he knew something wasn’t right. “My father’s in trouble.” He had a vague memory…a bit of a dream.

Jim’s hand was on his arm, hot, confining. “You don’t know that.”

“I can see it in Gabe’s eyes. He’s talked to Dean.”

“Sam, calm down.”

“Stop telling me to calm down.” Sam pulled free and stumbled back against the altar. “Fuck!” His stomach roiled with hunger and fear and anger. He pressed his hands against the cold stone. 

“Don’t listen to them, Sammy…get angry…feel it inside you.” 

Sam’s head shot up, his eyes searching for the source of the voice. “Gabe!” It was behind him, coming fast. Sam moved, lunged, but Jim’s hand pulled him back before he could breach the circle.

Gabe’s face paled as it grabbed him, pulling him back. The take out containers splattered against the floor and Sam shoved at Jim, trying to get clear. “You can’t help him like that Sam.” Jim whispered at him. “It wants you…not Gabe.”

It smiled. “Of course I want Sammy…not this…whip of a child…although…” It licked up the side of Gabe’s face. “He tastes good…maybe I’ll give him to my children to play with.”

“You have no place here.” Jim said, drawing himself up.

“You have no place here,” it mimicked, tossing its head. “I have every place here, preacher. The boy belongs to me. I marked him.”

Jim actually smiled. “Oh? Funny, I find no mark on him.”

Its hand circled Gabe’s throat. “You scrubbed him, I’ll give you that. Doesn’t mean he isn’t mine.” 

Sam looked at Gabe, then at the demon. The room stilled and he could feel the heartbeats of Pastor Jim and Gabe…there was no heartbeat in the body the demon was inhabiting. He stepped in front of Jim.

“You want me? Come and get me.”

It smiled, sickly and disgusting. “I am not nearly as stupid as I might look, Sammy. You come to me…and I’ll let the child go.”

Sam took a step forward and Jim pulled him back. “Let go of me.”

“Sam, I can’t let you sacrifice yourself.”

“I don’t plan on it.” Sam said. “Gabe, I want you to look at me, okay?” Sam toed the edge of the circle, he could feel the energy that protected the space ripple around him. “Look at me and don’t think about him. He’s nothing.”

“I don’t know what you think you’re playing at, Sammy. My patience—“ 

Sam’s eyes snapped up to meet the yellow ones of the demon. “My name is Sam. No one but Dean calls me Sammy.” He let the fury bubble this time, felt it boiling inside him. “Gabe, remember that science experiment?”

He had no idea if it would work, if he could control it. The anger was hot inside him. He brought up memories of finding Dean, of Robert…of hands and feet and dicks slamming into him. Jim let go of him, hissing as his skin produced heat. Sam stepped forward, his toes over the line, the rest of him pressed up against it. 

“Don’t be foolish, Samuel. I can help you.”

Sam cracked his neck and stepped out of the circle. “Only my father calls me Samuel. Gabe!”

Gabe dove at the floor, surprising the demon holding him as Sam charged at them. Sam leaped over Gabe, reaching for the demon, who was suddenly gone. “In the circle,” he heard Jim yelling. Wood was flying around the space, scrapping Sam’s skin as it flew past him, then a chair leg slammed into his stomach, impaling him.

Sam stumbled backward, his eyes closed and tripped over Gabe back into Jim’s arms. “Is he gone?” Sam asked as Gabe pressed his hands over the wound, feeling his way around the wood.

“For now, Sam. For now.”

 

He was somewhere that looked like a medical clinic. Everything was gleaming and white. John was strapped to a table, face down. His ankle splinted, his busted gun hand wrapped in bandages. His head was swimming with the sedatives they’d pumped him full of. He squinted at the bright lights. 

This was not good.

“Well, well, well. Look at what the cat dragged in.” John blinked. “Well, part cat anyway. Part monkey. He’s…an experiment.”

“Andrew?”

“John Winchester. Too bad Michael died before he could see this.”

Andrew moved closer, his white suit blending with the white walls so that to John’s drug addled mind it seemed his head was floating. “I am going to enjoy watching the demons fight to take you.”

“Over my dead body.”

Andrew smiled. “No…not dead…just…altered. Can you feel it yet?” His hand moved over the back of John’s neck, over stitches he hadn’t yet realized were there. “My boys…smart, talented.” He met John’s eyes. “Oh, more mine than Michael’s…always were. Michael couldn’t be bothered being a father. The idea is all Ash. The execution is Bill. The funding is all mine.”

Andrew backed away. “Don’t worry. Once we’re sure the technology has taken, you’ll be moved out to the barn. By the time your boys figure out you’re in trouble, you’ll be just another monster to be put down.”

 

“Where are you going?”

“Get in the car Dean.”

“No. I’m not leaving.”

Caleb sighed and put his hands on the roof of his car. “Bobby and Allen are on their way. We need to do some recon. There’s a place down the road where you can just make out the barn.”

“You said yourself that Dad is probably out there, in the trees.” Dean pointed vaguely. 

“If he hasn’t already been caught. I told you these…things they’re making are incredibly good.”

Dean didn’t want to think about that. He remembered Andrew, never really had a large level of affection for the man. He wasn’t like other hunters. He was wealthy and cold and no one really knew the reasons that he hunted. He knew he was supposed to remember Ash, but all he had was a face and the sound of his laughter. It made his skin crawl.

“Okay, just a minute.” Dean opened the door of the Impala and snatched up his father’s cell phone. He pressed a bunch of buttons, and set it back where he’d found it. “In case he comes back. He’ll know I’m around.”

 

“It isn’t as bad as it looks, Sam.” Jim said.

“Hurts.” Sam mumbled, trying to sit up to see as Jim bandaged the hole in his stomach.

“I know. I can give you—“

Sam shook his head. “No more drugs.” He looked behind him where Gabe was sitting against the altar. “You okay?”

Gabe shook his head. “Would one of you tell me what’s going on? That was a demon right? How—why—how—“

Jim sighed and finished taping the bandages over Sam’s stomach. “This is my fault.”

Sam was starting to feel very frustrated with Pastor Jim and his taking blame without explanation. There wasn’t time. Not when his father and brother were out there in who knew what kind of trouble.

“Maybe, when this is over and everything, you can walk me through how this is your fault, okay Pastor Jim? Right now, I need to know how to deal with it…with me and with that fucking bastard that’s standing between me and my family.”

Jim’s face paled even further and he looked alarmed. “You can’t think you’re in any shape to—“

Sam held up a hand. “Right now I’m on a real low boil, don’t get me angry again. I’m hurt and I’m confused, but once I figure out what the hell is going on, I’m going after them.”

They were quiet for a few minutes. Then Sam raised a hand to his head, rubbing at his temples. “Now…these dreams…that aren’t dreams…can I control them?”

Jim sighed again. “I don’t know. My job was only to watch you and report any activity that indicated…well, like this. Normally it starts early, in puberty.”

“I’m a Winchester. We don’t do anything normally.” Sam said, a note of bitterness in his voice. “What would have happened if this happened then?”

Jim hung his head. “I’m probably already in a lot of trouble. You would have been approached by a member of the council, trained.”

Sam could see words Jim wasn’t saying. “They would have taken me away, and if I didn’t learn to control it…” He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to; Jim’s face was confirmation enough. They would have killed him.

“You’re dangerous. Especially with it all coming on you at once like this.” Jim offered.

“All?”

Jim waved his hand at the broken furniture scattered around the room. Sam shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I need to figure out what I saw, so I can help Dean.” As he said his brother’s name, his body went cold. He was too late. Something had already happened.

“I need to talk to Dean. I need….Dad’s in trouble…serious…” Sam closed his eyes, shaking his head lightly side to side as he tried to force the image. “The barn…he’s…he’s in the barn…Andrew…demons…fuck…fuck…”

Jim’s hand burned on Sam’s skin. “Sam, tell me what you see.”

Sam’s eyes popped open and he stared at Jim for a second. “They’re going to turn him into one of those…things.” He scrambled to his feet, holding his stomach. “Have you figured out how he’s controlling them?” he asked Gabe.

“I only got a little glimpse before one of them was back on the network. I didn’t want to get caught.”

“Gabe?”

Gabe stood up slowly. “He’s…implanting microdevices…series of them. It lets them use a computer to transmit instructions. The more complex the series of devices, the more rational the creature, the more they control it.”

“Can you hack it?”

“Not from here. I’ll need more access, uninterrupted access.”

“Then you’re with me.”

“Once you step out of this circle, he’ll be at you again Sam.” Jim said, standing now too.

The image filled Sam’s mind, Dean dead, his stomach ripped open, laying across their father’s unmoving body. He hadn’t recognized before…hadn’t realized…”Andrew is turning my father into a monster…a monster that is going to kill Dean…and Dean is going to die killing Dad…and I’m sitting here waiting for a fucking demon or some fucking priests to battle over who gets to take me away.”

Racks of candles were quaking with his anger. Jim raised both hands in a gesture of surrender. “At least let me run interference.”

“Did you have something in mind?”

Jim nodded. “I should be able to get you out the door and past the gathered demonic party outside.”

Sam nodded. “We’ll need to get a car. Gabe, you go get your stuff. I’m going to need to borrow some weapons.”

“Your father took most of the easily portable guns.”

“I always preferred knives.” Sam’s eyes flicked around the room. “I’m going to need the stuff to do an exorcism…maybe more than one. Holy water, anointing oil…It’s going to be bad.”

 

He was moving. Walking. He was walking. Andrew was next to him. That was…something wasn’t right. Ash was ahead. He was walking toward Ash. John shook his head. His right hand was bandaged, but it didn’t hurt. 

He remembered falling from a tree. Remembered he didn’t trust Andrew. But Andrew was his friend. Ash was holding something in his hands. The barn. Something about the barn.

“We’ve got more company.” Ash said as they got close enough.

“Anyone we know?” 

Ash made a face. “I assume they’ve come for him.” He gestured at John with the controller in his hands. Suddenly it occurred to John that he was in trouble. “Fucker’s fighting.” 

“He won’t fight as hard once we complete the process.”

“Bill wants to use the grizzly.”

“Bill always wants to use the grizzly.” John felt Andrew’s eyes. “In this case I think he’s right. It’s a good personality fit. Get him inside. I’ll see to the company.”

“Already sent Ryan and his cheetahs. Figured you’d want to be here.”

John watched the door open, felt the urge to move. He knew he didn’t want to go in there. He wanted to fight, to run. He wanted to hurt Andrew. Ash punched buttons on the contraption in his hands and John’s feet moved forward. “I haven’t had this much trouble since Gordon.” Ash mumbled as John moved past him. 

The inside didn’t resemble a barn as much as it did a church. John marched into the center of the room, into a circle carved into the earth. He was in trouble. He couldn’t stop himself from stripping out of his torn and bloodied shirt and laying on the stone, arms and legs stretched out to shackles that two men came forward to secure. 

“Bring in the grizzly.” Andrew said, standing off to John’s left. “Let’s make this quick. Now that it seems they know where we are, we can expect more to come our way.”

John looked up as a cage was rolled in and shivered as the bear inside it roared. Three men in black robes started chanting and John tried to pull himself free. He knew now what was going to happen. He knew they were calling out the spirit of the animal…trapping it…and soon…soon they would shove it inside him.

He shook and pulled, then there was pain, lancing through him from the back of his neck. He could hear Ash cussing. “He blew out two of the relays. How the fuck did he do that?”

“Is it safe to continue?”

“Yeah…yeah…I can replace them later.”

John saw the grey mist as it exited the bear…saw it hover in the circle, then felt the warm splash of blood over his naked chest. The bear’s blood…calling it’s spirit home. He held his breath and yanked at his restraints, fighting as the mist fell, blanketing him, searching him and when he could hold his breath no longer, sinking into him as he inhaled.

 

“Caleb?” Dean breathed the name, and Caleb turned his head slowly. “Not alone.” Dean mouthed. Caleb nodded, then pointed to his left. Dean pointed to his right. Okay. So there were two. Two what was anybody’s guess.

They were laying on their bellies in the tall grass, moving slowly toward the nearest structure. They froze and both moved so their guns were poking through the grass. Caleb’s hand closed around Dean’s wrist. “Together.”

Dean nodded and they inched backward. They’d agreed that at the first sign of trouble they would back out and wait for the others. He spared a glance behind him and stopped. One of them had gotten behind them. 

There was an odd sound, like a big cat growling, but with some human sound mixed in. Dean saw it coming a split second too late and rolled them away, but not before a claw dragged over his arm. “Fuck.” He rolled them both directly into the path of the other one, but managed to get under it, making it over shoot. 

“Run.” Caleb said as they scrambled to their feet…angling for the tree line. They were coming fast. Dean didn’t question, just took off at a run. Caleb reached the trees first, turning to fire a few shots at their pursuers. Dean dove past him, coming up panting his own gun blazing away as he emptied his clip into the nearest of them. 

“Fuck. What the hell?” He’d hit it with at least six shots and it just kept coming. They were close enough now that he could see that they were human…at some point. Both were draped in animal skins…some big cat and they wore gloves made of the cat’s claws. Beyond them another one walked, human. A whip was wrapped around his body and there was some electronic device in his hand, like a remote for a sophisticated toy.

“Told you we should stay in the car.” Caleb said, scoping out the area. “Not much cover and these trees probably have more surprises. We need to get out of here.”

Dean panted, pointing in the direction toward the buildings. “If we’re already here, might as well.” They took off again. The closest cat-thing was limping now, not coming nearly as fast. The other one though. There was something familiar about it. Dean slid on the mossy ground and Caleb reached down to help him, his eyes tracking their pursuer in the half-light filtering through the trees.

“Gordon?”

“Who?”

Caleb shook his head. “I keep forgetting you don’t remember shit. Hunter. Owe him my life.”

“Looks like you’re a little late.” Dean quipped, getting his feet under him. The Gordon-cat-thing had stopped, its head cocked as it stared at them, sniffing the air. 

“Caleb.” It said it with conviction.

Caleb nodded. There was confusion on its face. Dean pulled on Caleb’s arm. “I don’t think we want to wait here while it remembers it’s supposed to be killing us.”

“He’s in there.”

“Yeah, and so is a big angry cat.” Dean said, pulling harder. “We gotta go!”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The forces gather and scatter and generally get into more trouble.

Ash cursed as his monitor buzzed for his attention. “We lost one of the cheetahs,” he said without looking up. 

“Gordon?”

He shook his head. “No the other one. Want to bet it’s one of his boys?”

Andrew shook his head. “Dean, not Sam.”

“Last time I saw Dean he didn’t know his own name.” Ash said, his eyes flicking to the scene on the floor in front of them. “I told my father the DVDs were a good idea. Give them something to waste their time…give me something to toy with the slaves. To bad I couldn’t snatch Jo on my way out. I’d like to have her waiting in my bedroom at night.”

“Sam was too injured. Your father too brutal. He’s in no condition to be out there.”

“I got twenty that says it’s him.”

“You’re on. Are we ready for the next phase?” 

Ash looked down at John Winchester. He was still now, the animal spirit settling in. Any moment it would wake him. The three men who’d pulled the spirit from the body were carving the skin off the bones, in order to suit up their new monster. “Yeah, I’d say so. Decided what kinds of demon gets to play inside him?”

Andrew smiled at his nephew. “Oh, I think we’ll let a few of them decide for us.” He signaled a man in red robes and thirteen men took up places around the circle.

“Going all out for this, aren’t you?” Ash asked.

“How often do you get a specimen like John Winchester?” Andrew asked as the chanting started. “Only higher level demons will do.”

 

Sam raised his head as Jim re-entered the room. He could see his father clearly now, his body no longer his own. It was terrifying. “We’re almost ready.”

Sam nodded. He knew as soon as he stepped out of the protective circle he’d be under attack…and that the attack likely wouldn’t stop, even once he and Gabe got away. “You should come with us.”

Jim shook his head. “I’m in enough trouble as it is. I’ll wait here for my superiors to arrive and deal with them. I have to convince them that you aren’t a threat.”

“Aren’t I?” 

He was unsure of himself, maybe more so than he’d been before. There was all the baggage, and this new…problem. “What good is it to see what is happening so far away? How am I supposed to stop it?”

“There are theories about that.” Jim said softly. 

Sam shook his head. He didn’t want theories. He wanted answers. “Don’t tell me I’m not supposed to stop it.”

“There is an element in the council, currently in the minority, that believes that any interference with events is interference in the will of god.”

Sam felt horror reflected in his face as he looked up. “You don’t’—you don’t believe that, do you?”

Jim shook his head. “No, Sam. I believe that you have been given these gifts for a reason…and to not act on them would be the greater sin.”

“When I come back with them, when you’ve helped me put Dad right again, we’re going to have a talk.” 

“I look forward to it.” Jim said, holding out a hand to help Sam off the floor. “Gabe should be around the corner in the car. I’m not comfortable with the stealing…but it’s for the greater good. If you’re ready…”

Sam nodded and followed Jim. Out of the circle, quickly up the stairs…out into the sanctuary. They were coming fast, already on the stairs into the church. Jim picked up a hose that was laying down the center aisle of the church. “Stay behind me until the path is clear.” He turned on the water as the doors opened. 

Holy water streamed out of the hose, pushing the demons back out the door. Sam followed as Jim moved closer, until he was out the front door. The yellow eyed man fell backward as water flowed over the steps and ate away at the borrowed flesh. “Now Sam.”

Sam sprinted past him, through the ankle deep water, leaping over grabbing hands and running as hard as he could toward the corner, where Gabe was waiting in a stolen Mustang. They roared away before Sam even had the door closed.

Sam panted and patted the dashboard. “Nice car.”

“Fast too.” Gabe answered, pressing his foot to the floor. 

“I can see that.” Sam glanced over his shoulder, watching as the hordes of demons came running. They knew he was gone. That he wasn’t protected anymore. “Did you hack the control program?” he asked Gabe as he settled into his seat.

“More or less.” Gabe didn’t look at him, and considering how fast they were driving, Sam figured that a good thing. 

“What does that mean?”

Gabe shrugged and moved them around a couple of cars. “I need to get my hands on one of his computers. I know how…I just can’t do it remotely.”

They were quiet for a while. Gabe slowed them down once the immediate threat was past and kept them under a hundred as they roared out of town.

“Its genius, really.” Gabe said suddenly. “Billy was in medical school. Got kicked out of two of them for performing unsanctioned experiments. He’s as brilliant as Ash.”

“So the two of them cooked this up together?”

Gabe shrugged. “Guess. From the look I got at their inventory, they’re still experimenting. They’ve sold several straight up berserkers, but beyond that they aren’t selling. They have all kinds of animals on site…and who knows how many of them they’ve already killed to make their…monsters.”

“They’re getting money somehow.” Sam said opening Gabe’s laptop to review some of his work. “They can’t keep buying if they aren’t.” 

He chewed on his lip and looked at screen after screen of information while Gabe drove. “Andrew has his fingers in a lot of pies,” he muttered. “Oil, alcohol, motels…motels…that’s how he got that footage….that’s how he knew where to find them. Andrew’s been playing us for a long time.”

“We knew that though.” Gabe said, glancing at him. “Maybe not about the motels…but that he was playing us.”

“Looks like we didn’t break the entire organization.” Sam said, flipping to another screen. “There’s money coming in from Massachusetts…sizeable money.”

“I saw that. There isn’t much background. The transactions are big.”

“Smallest is around $75,000. That’s about the going price of a slave.”

Gabe’s face drained of color. “You don’t think…”

“Yeah, Gabe. I do think.” Sam made a face. Memory bubbled under the surface but he locked it away. It wasn’t going to help him. “They’ve probably scaled way back, but it made them money. Why abandon it all together?”

“I just thought…with…you know…monsters and stuff…” He took a turn a little fast and Sam grabbed the dashboard. “I figured….they’d be done with…with…”

“You can say the word Gabe, I’m not going to fall apart.”

Gabe shuddered and shook his head. “No…but I might.” His jaw was tight and he didn’t look at anything but the road.

“Hey, you okay?”

He didn’t respond right away. When he did, his voice was clipped, angry. “I trusted him. Hell, I looked up to him. And all along, he was…he was…evil.”

“Ash?”

“Who do you think did the networking? Who do you think set up the security and the cameras?” Gabe’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel. “I got in because I was emulating him. I should have known. Should have figured it out before…”

Sam wasn’t sure how to respond. It had never occurred to him that Gabe would be so affected by Ash’s betrayal. “You did figure it out though, before any of the rest of us would have.”

Gabe shook his head again. “I should have known when I broke the security feed. Should have recognized the system.” He was quiet again, then he looked at Sam, his eyes blazing. “I want him, Sam. I want to be there when he goes down.”

 

Dean ducked behind a counter as the door opened, listening to footsteps circle the little room. “Dean?”

He popped up to find Caleb standing a few feet away. “Anything?”

Caleb shook his head. “Nothing. Building’s empty as far as I can tell.”

“What do you think they do in here?” Dean picked up what looked like a medical implement. 

“Don’t know.” Caleb fingered a string of what looked like computer pieces. “Wish Gabe were here. He’d know what this was.”

“Yeah, where are our geeks when we need them.” Dean smirked and moved to a cabinet with syringes and medicine bottles. “Maybe while we’re here you should stitch me up.” Dean turned his arm to look at the three gashes. They were deep, but not long.

“We don’t have time.” Caleb countered. He froze as they heard voices.

“He said to get the room ready, once the demon’s in, they’re bringing him back in.”

“I told you and him, I don’t want the altered ones in here. They break things.”

“It’s going to be sedated, don’t worry.”

“You can’t sedate a demon.”

“No, but you can sedate the body that it’s in.”

Dean eased open the door and peered into the hall. Two men in lab coats were headed their way. There was no way out of the room without being seen. There was no where for two of them to hide. 

Caleb pushed him toward the counter, then squeezed behind the door. Dean ducked just as the door opened. “I don’t like it.”

“I don’t like any of this. It isn’t natural.”

The other one snorted. “Wasn’t it you who fixed the whole feedback problem?”

“Doesn’t mean I approve of how they’re using the technology. If they didn’t have my daughter—“

“My wife,” the other one countered. 

Then Caleb moved, shoving the door at them, leaping over them and running. They were up and following, shouting about an intruder. And just like that Dean was alone.

 

It was strange, knowing something else was inside you, feeling it slumbering. John opened his eyes. He was still pinned to the ground. The bear was a part of him. Yet, for the moment, he was himself. He could hear Andrew nearby. He could hear chanting. 

The room was spinning and dark shapes hovered around him. Dark, angry shapes. There seemed to be a battle going on over his head. Eyes flashed at him out of the dark as they clashed.

Demons. 

The circle was filled with them. His breathing came hard. The fear welled up inside him. Fear that wasn’t his. He was strong. He’d handled demons. He knew that to succumb to fear would make him open to them. And yet…he couldn’t stop. His body shook with it.

The inhuman screaming around him filled him with terror. One by one they vanished, beaten off, until one of them hovered over him. The bear was waking. “John Winchester…I’ve been wanting a chance at you.” The voice seemed to come from everywhere and he was forced to close his eyes. 

“No.” John forced out. More fear flooded through him. The black smoke was there, hovering, exploring him.

“Yes. Yes. You’re going to be mine…And when I’m done with you, so will Sammy.”

“Sam.” John tried to hold on to the image of Sam, but it disintegrated into the broken boy he’d been when John finally rescued him and the anguish rolled through him…He opened his eyes just as the demon fell, and darkness pushed him back, back and locked him behind a door in his own mind.

 

“Dad.” Sam sat up right and banged his head on the low ceiling of the car. 

“Almost there.” Gabe said. 

Sam looked around. “Sorry. I…was drifting.”

“Did you see him?” Gabe asked.

Sam made a face. “I’m not sure.” He exhaled slowly and tried to remember what he saw. “It’s kind of a blur.” He was having trouble telling what was dream and what was true…the landscape in which he had seen his father was so fantastic and surreal.

“This is Marion?” Sam asked and Gabe nodded.

“The old town was further out, where the ranch is. When tornadoes destroyed everything, they rebuilt here at the crossroads.”

Sam nodded as they drove past the bar/grocery and headed out the other side of town. Gabe jumped when his phone rang. He flipped it open and frowned. “Dad?” Gabe glanced at Sam then switched the phone to his other hand. “What? Where?”

Gabe pointed as they past the front entrance to the ranch, but he kept driving. “Caleb? Where is he?”

There was a note of fear in his voice. “No. Don’t. I told them…just wait. We’re almost there.”

He dropped the phone and shook his head. “Your brother is an idiot.”

Sam nodded. “He can be.”

“I told him not to go in. I told him to stay put.”

“Dean’s not good with sitting.”

“My father and Bobby are here. Caleb called them. He and Dean got separated.”

Sam shook his head. Dean was alone when he found their father in his dream. Dean was alone when he died. Sam swallowed and tried to swallow the panic. “I have to find him.”

“Dad and Bobby said both Caleb’s car and the Impala are empty, abandoned. They’re waiting for us a little further down the road.”

It was too late. He was too late, too slow…too weak. It reverberated around in his head alongside the image of his family dead…his hands shook and beside him the passenger side window did too. He had to cap off the emotion, before he hurt either one of them. 

Bobby’s truck stuck out in the open field, its faded blue paint nearly a neon sign amid the tall grasses burnt brown by the sun. Bobby and Allen leaned against the back as they pulled up. Gabe was out of the car as soon as he had it in park, hugging his father while Sam got up a little slower. The run for the car had not been good for his leg, which throbbed and ached and protested as he put weight on it. He put the thought of pain out of his mind and crossed to Bobby who pulled him into a hug.

“You okay?”

Sam smiled tightly and nodded. “Better once I find my father and wring his freaking neck, but yeah. You?”

Bobby nodded. “What do we know?”

Sam gestured at Gabe with his chin. “They’re building hybrids, most likely as assassins. They haven’t perfected them though. We know that they’re using some sort of technology to control them. Some are just modified berserkers, with computer chips that keep the animal dormant until they need it.” He pulled his laptop out of the car and set it up on the trunk. “Others…it looks like they’re working on a berserker crossed with a demon….ups the destructive quotient, and keeps the body going, even when it should be dead.”

Sam backed off while Gabe brought the others up to speed. He adjusted the strap of the backpack Gabe had filled for him with weapons and holy water. He stopped at the split rail fence that marked the edge of the property. It was more than a fence though. He could feel the energy of a barrier that kept the monsters inside. Wouldn’t affect anyone who was wholly human…but…he ran his hand along the top rail. It kept the others in. 

He glanced over his shoulder at Gabe and the others. Allen looked thoughtful. Bobby looked pissed. Sam was scared. He didn’t know how much time he had. Any minute now Dean could find their father. Any minute now it could all be over. 

She died because of him. That demon killed his mother. Dean was taken and brutalized because of him. His father was possessed because he didn’t figure it out fast enough. His brother was going to die…and he was standing there, afraid to move.

He yelled and the glass in both vehicles imploded. He was panting when he turned to Gabe. It was clear he couldn’t stay with them. He’d kill them too. “I have to go save Dean. Find a way to stop them. Shut them down.”

Sam jumped the fence and took off at a run, despite the pain radiating up his leg. He had to ignore it and find his brother. He had to find Dean. 

 

Dean skidded to a stop and ducked behind a door. He found himself in an office. The nameplate on the desk said “Dr. William Harvelle” and the place looked like it wasn’t used very often. Dean checked the hallway. It was filled with lab coats in chaos. Apparently Caleb was giving them a run for their money.

He looked around the desk for clues, stopping when he found a file folder with his father’s name. He opened it hesitantly. A lot of it was beyond him, but there were indications his father had been injured. Broken ankle and hand, concussion…blood type and a litany of scars. He flipped the page. There was a drawing of an incision on what appeared to be the back of a neck. There were notes, initials he didn’t understand, what looked like a row of six of those computer pieces.

He ripped the page out and folded it, tucking it into his jeans, figuring that Sam or Gabe would be able to figure it out when they caught up. The next page was stamped with the word “grizzly” in red ink.

“Fabulous.” Dean muttered. The noise in the hallway was louder know and he moved so he could see. He froze when he saw them…Andrew and his father. Side by side, as if nothing was wrong. But he could see that it wasn’t right either. His father’s eyes were closed, and his movements were jerky. “Dad?” Dean had barely whispered, but his father’s face changed, turned toward Dean. For a minute Dean thought he was going to be spotted, then a man stepped between them.

Ash. That was Ash. Dean knew it, though he couldn’t remember actually meeting him. Sam said he’d been at Andrew’s cabin before they left. He had something in his hands, like the man in the field. “He blew two of the chips, Billy.”

“You sure? Those are the best we’ve got.”

“You must have mis-wired something.” Ash said slapping at the other man.

“I told you it would take more than six for a personality as strong as his. Bring him down here, let me look.”

Dean watched his father bend at the waist and the two men looked at the device in Ash’s hands. “Well, put him in the room. Dr. Valens, it looks like we’re replacing two of the chips. Prep the patient.”

Ash handed the controller off to someone. “If you don’t need me, I’m going to head back to the house. Vicky was in the middle of something when I got the call.”

Andrew sounded disgusted. “You and that fucking slave. I should never have financed your father’s obsession.”

Ash grinned wickedly. “You like the money you earn on the investment well enough. Maybe you should let me get you one of your own…hell, maybe I could get you Dean back. I saw how you looked at him.”

Dean started at the sound of his name, watching Ash move toward the door at the far end of the hall. “I did not look at him.”

“Aw, come on Uncle Ash…bet all that programming is intact…just needs a little tweaking.”

“Andrew. You’re Ash now. Go on then. I’ll call you if we need you.”

Dean exhaled slowly and watched Ash disappear down the corridor. The house. Ash was headed back to the house. And his father was being operated on. Dean was torn. He wanted to break into that room and bust his father out…but what if they’d already done something unthinkable…what if he couldn’t control him? What if he killed him.

He hated to admit it, but he needed Ash. He needed to know what was being done and how to fix it. Dean moved to the back of the office. He pushed the window up and the screen out, then dropped to a crouch on the ground. 

Gunshots sounded to the west. He hoped it was Caleb still on the run. Dean looked around, trying to remember the lay of the land. The house was near the front gate. Lot of ground to cover. He inched toward the front of the building. There was a large open space with golf carts between it and the barn. Ash exited the building and climbed into one of the carts. 

“Okay.” Dean tucked his gun into his jeans and sprinted to the nearest cart, hoping it had keys. Instead, it was a push button starter. “Cool.” Dean started the engine and pressed down on the pedal, jerking into motion. It took a moment to get a hang of the thing, but once he did, he set off after Ash.

 

“Sam!”

Gabe got as far as the railing, but Sam was already gone onto the property. “Fuck! Winchesters. Fuck the whole fucking lot of them!”

“I take it you’re a little bit frustrated with the boys?” Allen asked, his voice bemused as he laid a hand on his son’s shoulder.

“Not just the boys. John too. They don’t fucking listen.” Gabe sucked in a deep breath and tried to regroup. “They don’t realize what’s in there.”

“And you do?”

He nodded tightly and headed back toward the cars. “I hope you came armed. Heavily armed.” He sighed. “I’ve been in there. I’ve seen. They’ve had months. By now they have dozens, maybe more.”

“Each one deadly.” Bobby said. “Caleb said they’re still targeting hunters. Says he saw Gordon.”

Gabe shivered. That was a frightening thought. “We have reason to believe they’ve turned John too.”

Bobby frowned at him. “What reason is that?”

Gabe looked at the spot where Sam had disappeared. “I’m not sure I follow it all…but Sam saw it.”

“What? Sam’s what?” Bobby asked.

Gabe shook his head. “I don’t know. I…something has happened to him. It’s all…strange. If it’s true though, they’ve made John into one of them…a techno-serker.”

“So…what do we do?”

Gabe sighed and pulled his duffle out of the back seat, opening it to arm himself. “We go in and get them out.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean confronts Ash, Sam runs interference for Caleb who meets up with Gabe and the others. The last of the Gorlians get what's coming to him.

For all that the place seemed like it should be heavily guarded, Dean didn’t run into any resistance as he followed the road down to the house. He stopped the cart where he could see it, watched Ash enter, nodding to the two men sitting guard. 

Okay. Front door was out of the question. Unless he took them out first. He checked his gun, and tucked it back in his pants. These were men, not monsters. He eyed the house. There had to be another way in. Dean turned the cart and aimed for the back of the house. 

There was another porch, and a door. That was nailed shut. Dean stopped the cart and sprinted across. The porch was falling apart, the boards rotted and collapsing.

The two windows that flanked the door looked promising. He sidled up to the house, peeking in to what appeared to be a kitchen. It was empty. Dean picked his way over the porch, freezing with each creak and groan, half expecting someone to come hurtling at him. 

The window was warped and hard to move. It rumbled as he forced it up. It seemed odd that the back of the house was unguarded, but he supposed they didn’t expect anyone to survive long enough to get to it. Finally he had it open just enough to squeeze into. 

The house was quiet. The kitchen didn’t look like it had been used in years. A thick layer of dust sat over everything. The same in the front room. He ducked as he neared the front door, though the glass was so dirty in the windows, all the men on the porch would see would be shadows and movement…and since Ash was already here…

Dean moved to the stairs, stepping lightly and hoping they didn’t make any noise. The hallway at the top was dark, but there was light coming from under one door. Dean paused at the door, listening. The sounds that greeted him gave him pause. Ash sounded as though…Dean closed his eyes. Ash was having sex…of some fashion.

He pulled his gun and reached for the door. Better to catch him with his pants down. He pushed the door open, gun held ready, and stepped inside. “Not a sound,” he said as Ash’s head came up off the mattress. A naked girl was kneeling on the floor between his feet, her mouth stretched around his cock.

Dean blinked, a vague thought echoing in the back of his mind. He couldn’t catch it though and it rambled away.

“Well, if it isn’t the prodigal slave.” Ash said, pushing the girl off him. His hand fisted in her hair and pulled her forward as he stood. Dean adjusted his stance and the gun. “Look familiar, slave? Get on your knees.”

Dean shook his head and took a deep breath. “Not on your life. Let go of the girl.”

Ash sneered at him. “It’s all in there you know? All I have to do is figure out how to trigger it.” He yanked on the girl again. “What are you?”

“Nothing. No one. Alone.” She spoke with no inflection, no emotion. Her voice flat and dead. 

_Nothing. No one. Alone._ It rolled around in his head.

Ash was moving now. “Sound familiar, slave? You are nothing. You are no one. You are alone.”

Dean’s eyes flashed to his, the gun raised to point into his chest. “I may be nothing, Ash, but I’m not alone. Right now the entire hunting community that you betrayed is descending on this place. Right now, they’re out there rounding up your monstrosities and your brother.”

Ash’s eyes flashed with defiance. “You’re not going to kill me though, Dean. You’re a Winchester…don’t believe in killing people…only evil.”

“You don’t think people can be evil?” Dean asked, pushing Ash back toward the bed. “You don’t think you’re evil?” 

Ash sort of shrugged, his hand leaving the girl’s hair and moving toward the night stand. “Stop. Hands where I can see them. You’re going to tell me what you did to my father, and how to reverse it.”

Ash laughed, tucking his cock back into his pants. “Why would I do that?”

Dean swallowed and stepped closer. “Because if you don’t, I’m going to hurt you.”

Ash laughed again and Dean struck, hitting him on the cheek with the butt of the gun. Ash’s eyes were dark and glittering when he turned back. “I have only got to yell, and this place will fill with men who will be all too willing to re-educate you in the proper behavior of a slave in the presence of his masters.”

“And you’ll be dead before they get here.” Dean said, his voice amazingly steady despite the turmoil inside him. “Tell me what I need to know.”

Ash smiled slightly, his hands rising in a gesture of surrender. “He’s been implanted with a series of devices that allow us full control of his body, and possessed with the spirit of a bear and with a high level demon. There isn’t much you can do. Cut off his head. Only way to really kill him. Anything less and the demon can keep the body animated.”

Dean’s stomach dropped. He was lying. He had to be lying. He wasn’t going to kill his father. “Tell me how to undo it.” Dean said, his jaw clenching.

Ash shook his head. “There is no way to undo it.”

“You’re lying.” Dean’s hand was starting to shake. _Nothing. No One. Alone._ “You’re lying.”

Ash shrugged. “So are you.” He pointed at the desk filled with computer equipment. “If your friends were all over this place, I’d know it.”

Dean gestured toward the desk. “Show me.” 

Ash stood and went to the desk, bringing the six monitors to life with one touch. “Slow. Show me my father.”

Ash pressed a few buttons and the scene on one of the monitors changed. His father was getting up from a table in the medical clinic. “Where are they taking him?”

“Don’t know. Usually they get a few days in lockdown to let all the pieces acclimate. My uncle has a soft spot for your Dad…so he may be let loose into the populace early.”

His fingers moved over the keyboard and another monitor switched to show a cave like structure built from trees and shrubs. Several of the monsters could be seen. “We call it the zoo. Always a few casualties when someone new is added.”

His fingers flew again and another monitor changed, only this time it was Dean himself on the monitor. Dean naked and on the floor of a cage with some man’s cock up his ass. Ash laughed as Dean’s hand shook. 

“Tell me what you are.” A second man was circling them, a whip in his hand. The Dean on the screen hung his head. 

“Nothing. No one. Alone.”

Behind them, the girl whispered the words in response. “Louder Slave.”

“Nothing. No one. Alone.”

Dean pressed the gun into Ash’s temple. “Turn it off.” His voice was hard and cold and he wanted nothing more than to put a bullet in the man’s head.

“You sure? We’re just getting to the good part. When you say thank you to the man for fucking you.”

It felt like his stomach was going to explode. His head was reeling with unwanted memories. He closed his eyes briefly, then decided to end it himself. Dean brought the butt of the gun down on the back of Ash’s neck and he crumpled, sliding off the chair onto the floor. Dean kicked him once for good measure, then sat himself down at the computer system. He was no geek like Gabe, or even Sam, but maybe he could get a little information before he went out to find his father…and Caleb.

 

Sam ran. He knew there were _things_ watching him, pacing him. They weren’t sure whether to attack or not. He ran without really knowing where. Dean had been here. Right here.

He stopped. He wasn’t sure how he knew. He just did. Dean and Caleb. He looked around him. There were eyes, staring down from the trees behind him. Whispers. He shook his head. He needed to concentrate. Focus. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. What good were these fucking “gifts” if he couldn’t figure out how to use them?

He opened his eyes. There were trails. Like the silvery wake Gabe had left behind. Dean and Caleb had moved together toward the nearest building. He blinked and they were gone. 

He headed toward the building, ducking as he heard shots and shouts. Gabe and Allen and Bobby must have started. Focus. Dean first. He had to find Dean. 

The door to the building opened and three men in lab coats came out, followed by something big and draped in bear skin. The bears claws were strapped onto its hands and feet. His breath caught in his throat as he realized. “Dad.” He breathed the word, saw the big man pause. 

Then a fourth man emerged, carrying a device that looked like it was controlling his father. He handed it off to a man approaching. “Ryan, take our new bear down to the zoo. Let’s get him into fighting mode. Want to see what he’s made of.”

The man named Ryan nodded, taking the controller and he and John moved away. Sam bit his lip, watching the jerky motions. Twice John stopped and half turned toward Sam, then resumed. Sam watched him go and he knew he should find Dean, but he found himself following his father instead.

 

Caleb squatted and tried to catch his breath. Blood caked his hands from the thing he’d had to kill. Gordon was still tracking him, and he wasn’t alone. There were at least two more behind him, and who knew how many in front of him. He’d gotten turned around. The trees were denser here. 

They hadn’t come this far into the property before. There was no way to hide with the blood covering his hands and clothes. The scent alone was going to attract them. He hoped Dean was making progress. 

He had to keep moving. Just keep drawing them away from Dean. Hopefully Bobby and Allen had found a way in. He could hear Gordon again. He’d come to recognize the growl. He started forward, digging through the brush and stopping when his hand encountered something that was not wood or leaves or grass. Something metal. He pushed at the clinging greenery that disguised it. 

He backed off a pace, looking around. It wasn’t big, but if he was far enough back in the property this could be the very thing Gabe had been trying to get them to. He worked his way around to the door. Of course it was locked.

They were getting close. He tried to mark the spot in his head and took off running again.

 

Gabe gave up on the gun pretty quickly, pulling a long blade out of his duffle. “Demons keep the body animated after they should be dead.” He shrugged apologetically at his father who was reloading his gun for the third time. 

He swung the blade a little, wincing as the stitches in his arm tugged. He’d almost forgotten them. His father say the face. “You okay?”

“Just a scratch. Days old. I’m fine.”

“That wasn’t an ‘I’m fine’ face.”

Gabe rolled his eyes. “I’m fine. Sam stitched it up days ago. Can we focus please?”

“Guys.” Bobby’s voice was soft, but it cut through their banter. “We aren’t alone.”

Gabe looked where Bobby was looking. “This sucks.” He adjusted his grip on the blade handle and advanced slowly. There was no telling how many they would have to kill to get to Caleb or Dean…or John or Sam…not to mention Ash and Andrew. 

To make matters worse, he wasn’t really sure which should be their priority. As two of the techno-serkers attacked he decided his priority was not getting killed. Everything else could wait.

 

Sam watched the man with the controller direct his father into a grove of trees. Sam picked his way around watching in fascination as whatever control was being exerted on his father was released.

John dropped instantly to a crouch of sorts, his head up, sniffing the air. Others appeared slowly out of the dense trees and brush. Ryan held a tranquilizer gun now, the controller slung around on a strap over one shoulder. 

Sam wanted to get his hands on both. He contemplated jumping him, but any movement would take him across the mouth of the opening, exposing him to the growing number of creatures inside. There was a roar and Sam looked back to where his father was charging at another one, his claws flashing, slashing and the other one whimpered as it fell, bleeding from the stomach and neck. 

There was screaming, inhuman and terrifying. One by one they challenged him…three, then four fell…then they were backing off, some licking wounds, some showing signs of submission. He roared again, up on his feet. The sound echoed around them. 

Ryan chuckled and raised a radio. “Subject delivered to the zoo. He’s fabulous.” He stuck the radio in a pocket and headed away from the grove. “You kids play nice now.” 

Sam saw the movement out of the corner of his eye and almost stood up to shout. His father was on top of Ryan in seconds, his claws emerging out the front of him. Ryan fell forward, John riding him to the ground. He sniffed the air, turning right to where Sam was hiding.

His head cocked to the side, his eyes burned yellow and Sam’s stomach sank. “No.”

“I can smell you Sammy.” It said.

Sam stood. There was a gun in his hand, but both he and the demon knew he wouldn’t use it. “He’s angry Sammy…wants you to run away…wants you to put a bullet in his head.”

“Maybe I will.” Sam took a few steps forward, sparing a glance into the grove. There were at least ten of them in there, all gathering to watch. 

“No…you won’t hurt Daddy.”

“I’m going to send you back to hell.” Sam said.

“Not with that little gun. But I tell you what Sammy…I’ll make a deal with you.”

“I don’t deal with demons.”

The thing made his father’s face pout. “No? Don’t you even want to hear my terms?”

Sam shook his head. “Get the fuck out of him.”

“You sure? You ready for your father as a full on berserker? You’d have to kill him then. You ready for that?”

It stood, licking the man’s blood from the claws and leaving a smear of blood over his father’s face. “I kinda like it in here…all this rage and fury…makes me feel at home.”

The others were advancing now. Sam’s head was starting to pound. He growled and adjusted his grip on the gun. “Come away with me Sammy, and I’ll make sure that Daddy and big brother Dean are a-okay.”

Sam shook his head. “You killed my mother.”

Sam watched him blink…the yellow gone, replaced by the liquid chocolate of his father’s. “Sam…Sam…”

He lowered the gun and stepped closer, then his father screamed, “Run!” and his eyes went blank and dark and Sam only missed getting clawed by inches as the bear was back. He ran, not looking back as his father and the others followed.

 

Dean watched the monitors as they cycled through the various security cameras around the property. He caught a glimpse of Caleb at one point, still evading Gordon, and he thought he saw Sam, but he was gone before Dean could refocus the camera. 

“Okay….show me something useful. Oh.” The bottom monitor brought up a map. Red dots seemed to mark the creatures, moving around the property. One of the security screens switched and he saw Gabe and Allen fighting for their lives. Then Bobby was there with the biggest fucking gun Dean had ever seen, blowing the head clean off the thing.

Beside him on the floor Ash was stirring. Dean kicked him again, then his eyes flicked up at the girl. He’d forgotten she was even there. “Hey…um…it’s okay.” Her eyes were wide with fear and they moved between Ash and Dean. “He’s not going to hurt you.”

She didn’t seem to understand that, bowing her head. “It is his right to hurt me if he chooses. He is my master.”

Dean shook his head. _Nothing. No one. Alone._ He swallowed. “No. He isn’t. He’s just an asshole of a computer hacker. He has no right to hurt you.”

“He is my master. I must obey.”

Dean closed his eyes. The image of himself on his knees filled his mind. He pushed it away. “You’re free. Do you…can you remember your name?”

She bowed forward even further. “I am nothing. No one. Alone.”

“I know that chorus. I’ve said it myself. But I am someone. I am Dean.” He stepped over Ash and lowered himself to his knees in front of her. He lifted her face with one hand under her chin. “You are someone. Someone I’d very much like to know.”

“You…you…” She didn’t lift her eyes to his. Dean spotted the mark, an “M” carved into her left breast. Licking his lips, he raised his shirt and showed her the “S” on his own chest.

“I was like you.” Dean said softly. 

“Isn’t this touching.” Ash said behind him. Dean whirled and slammed a fist into his face. Ash slumped back to the floor and Dean shook his head. 

“I don’t have time for this.” He looked around the room for something to tie him up, settling on ripping the sheet off the bed into strips. He made quick work of his ankles and wrists, then shoved a wad of material into his mouth and gagged him. “I have to go out there and find my brother. You stay inside. It’s safer here. When I’m done, I’ll come back for you. Do you understand?”

Her face was painted with fear. “Do you understand?”

She cringed, her eyes stealing to Ash. “Are you…my master now?”

Dean stepped back, starting to shake his head. “Yes. Yes. If that means you’ll listen to me.”

She nodded slowly, but was clearly far from convinced. “Stay here. Don’t let him loose. I’ll be back for you as soon as I can.”

He spotted the tranquilizer gun by the door. He lifted it and checked the chamber. It had a single dart in it. “Does he have more ammo for this?”

She nodded and pointed at the closet. “Right. Okay. Stay. I’ll be back.”

 

Sam barreled through the trees, his large curved knife in his hands now. He’d already used it on some of the faster ones, cutting through limbs and stomachs. It wasn’t killing them, but with any luck was slowing them down. 

Then, he found Caleb…bowling him over and sending them crashing into leaves and brush. When they’d stopped rolling, Sam pulled back, panting. “Caleb?”

He nodded. “You okay?”

Sam shook his head. “Don’t know. Where’s Dean?”

“Don’t know.”

There was a low growl. “Gordon.” Caleb said. 

“Gordon?” There was a deeper growl. “Dad.”

Caleb shook his head. “This is really not how I planned to spend my day.”

“Gabe’s supposed to be finding a way to shut them down.”

“Gabe’s here?”

Sam nodded, gasping air. “Left him with Allen and Bobby.”

“I know where the power center is.”

“I can lead them away. You go find Gabe.” He pointed in the direction he’d last known Gabe was.

“That’s suicide.” Caleb countered. “We’re better off if we stick together.”

Sam shook his head. “No. I’m better alone. Trust me on this. Lay low and give me a few minutes to get their attention.”

Caleb reached for him, but Sam was too fast, yelling and crashing through the brush. Caleb ducked, covering his head as the sound of stampeding feet rushed past him. “Fucking Winchesters.”

Caleb counted to ten, then set off, back tracking toward the grove where he and Gabe had encountered the berserker. He wasn’t quite there when he heard the sounds of battle. There was a sickening crunch and semi-automatic gunfire. Then Gabe’s voice. “Dad!”

He stood from his cover and rounded the tree, gun held at ready. Gabe was on his knees beside a bloodied Allen with Bobby standing watch. “Gabe?”

Gabe’s eyes came up and he was on his knees and across the clearing in seconds, his arms wrapped around Caleb’s body in a crushing hug. “Are you okay? Are you…fuck, Caleb!” Gabe shoved him back, his relief at seeing Caleb alive fading under his anger at having to worry at all. “What the fuck were you thinking? You…you…”

Caleb cupped a hand to Gabe’s cheek, drawing him closer, forgetting the other men and the danger in his need to reassure him. “I’m okay, Gabe. I’m fine. All in one piece and everything.” He might have kissed him but for Bobby clearing his throat.

“Nice to see you, Caleb.”

Gabe rolled his eyes and stepped back. Allen was sitting up. The front of his shirt was ripped and bloody but he appeared to be okay. “I’ve put down two. Injured a bunch more.”

“We’ve taken out about three…we think.” Bobby said. “Two for sure. We lost track of the other one.”

Caleb nodded. “They’ve monsterfied John.”

“You’ve seen him?” Bobby asked. 

Caleb shook his head, looking back over his shoulder. “No. Sam has though. Ran into him a ways back.” He clapped a hand to Gabe’s shoulder. “Found what you were looking for last time we were here.”

“Control room?” Gabe asked. 

Caleb shrugged. “Only thing out this far that isn’t natural. Metal walls, locked door. Figured you’d want to see it.”

Gabe nodded. “We stick together. Strength in numbers.”

“Not going to find me arguing.” Allen said. Caleb thought Allen looked at him funny, but brushed it off.

“Okay then. Follow me.”

 

Dean had roughly twenty darts in the beat up messenger bag he’d found in Ash’s closet, as he climbed into the cart and pointed it in the direction of the largest concentration of red dots on the map. Knowing his father, even in his currently altered state, that would be where he would find him…and if he could neutralize a few other targets on the way, so be it. 

He went past the barn and headed toward the tree line. He had to abandon the cart. He just had to keep a dart to use on his father. Put him down and hope they could figure out a way to reverse what had been done to him.

He’d gone through half the box when he found himself with his back pressed against the trunk of a massive oak tree, trying to load the next dart with a hyena possessed woman snarling at him, her hands wrapped around the gun. He let go with one hand and punched her hard in the face, then wrenching the gun free. He got the dart in and the gun turned, but her partner pounced and he was face first in the dirt.

He yelled as claws dug into his shoulder. The woman on his back laughed. The other one lunged forward, biting at him and getting a hold on his upper arm. Dean rolled, trying to keep his grip on the gun, but it fell from his fingers.

He lashed out with an elbow, hitting one of them in the face. She yelped as he scrambled to his feet and dove for the gun. He nailed the one charging at him with a dart to the stomach and she slumped to the ground. The other one circled warily, watching as he loaded another dart. He lifted the gun and she ran. He shot anyway, hoping to catch her in the back to keep her off his trail. 

There was a scream and he smirked. “That’s right, bitch—“

He didn’t finish as Gordon came crashing through the brush, his face wet with blood. His eyes found Dean and he growled. “Okay…nice kitty.” Dean reached into the bag for another dart, watching Gordon prowl toward him. “Caleb says your name is Gordon.”

It was still coming, and Dean’s fingers fumbled trying to get the dart loaded. Dean looked down and Gordon charged. Dean dropped, stiff-arming the gun up to hold Gordon off him. “Bad kitty.” 

They struggled for a minute, then Gordon’s weight was lifted. Dean looked up to find his father holding Gordon, growling. Dean crawled backwards, trying to get out from under them. His father roared and tossed Gordon aside. Gordon hit the ground and didn’t move. Dean froze as he felt those eyes on him, his father’s body, the bear’s skin…and yellow glowing eyes…”Dad?”

 

“Right there.” Allen pointed over his son’s shoulder.

Gabe slapped at his hand. “I see it. The question is, delete it or hack it?”

Allen rubbed his chin. “If we disable it, that leaves them all free to attack.”

“They’re pretty much going to kill us if we leave them like they are.” Gabe said, his fingers flying over the keyboard. He glanced up at Caleb standing guard with Bobby at the door. “I’m kind of surprised I haven’t set off a bunch of hidden sentries.”

“Maybe you have and everyone’s so busy they don’t have time to deal with it. Try that.” He pointed to a file and Gabe nodded.

“Uplink to the controllers. If we had controllers that might be worth something.” He chewed on his lip and went back to the command file. “I say we hack it. Might take longer, but it might mean we can shut them all down.”

“Then I suggest you get busy. I don’t know how much more we can handle.” Bobby said.

Gabe nodded. “Yeah, right.” He exhaled slowly and started working his way into the file.

 

“Okay, Dad…I realize you’re having a really bad day…” Dean used a tree behind him to pull himself up to his feet. 

“Daddy’s a little busy right now, Dean.”

“Shit.” Dean’s fingers were numb now, blood running down his arm from the bite and the bleeding from his cut up arm, since the wrestling on the ground had broken it open. 

“I was hoping we could be a big happy family, once Sammy came to his senses, but I can see that the only way I can make Sammy see his place is if you’re dead.”

Finally. The dart slipped and he cocked the gun, only to find it ripped from his hands. Then he was being pulled, his feet dragging through the dirt. A bloody, dirty hand closed around his throat and lifted him from his feet.

“No!” Sam’s voice reverberated around them. Dean could feel it inside him, echoing in his head. “No. Put him down. It’s me you want.”

Dean could see Sam now, approaching slowly. The demon turned John’s body, made his face into a sickly smile. “Well hello there Sammy. We were just talking about you.”

“Put my brother down.”

“Come with me.”

Dean’s vision was starting to fade. He was going to pass out. He clawed at the hand holding him. “Got Ash, Sammy.” He choked the words out. Sam nodded, but didn’t take his eyes off of their father. 

Sam had a book in his hands now. Dean could see it. He was speaking in Latin. The demon laughed. “Gonna send me back to hell, Sammy?”

“Put my brother down and we’ll negotiate.”

“Maybe I’ll just take him with me.” He ran, and hit a barrier between the two oak trees. He stumbled backward, losing his grip on Dean and landing in a heap at Sam’s feet. 

Sam’s smile was nearly frightening. “I’m starting to figure all this out, you sick fuck. Now, get the hell out of my father.”

It was laughing, wiping blood from his face as it pulled itself upright. “I kind of like it in here.”

 

“Like this?” Gabe asked, rewriting the code as his father nodded. 

Allen held one of the controllers that he’d found in a storage locker. “Good, it’s uploading.”

“So we have something resembling a plan?” Bobby asked.

Allen nodded. “We use this to herd them all into one place, some place we can lock down. Then we figure out how to get the demons and animal spirits out.”

“The medical clinic had locks on the doors.” Caleb said, but Gabe was already shaking his head. 

“Barn…it’s got cages.” He looked up and Caleb nodded agreement. “Hang on. I can…” Gabe’s tongue hung out of his mouth as he manipulated more of the code. “I disabled all the other controllers but this one.”

“All right then, looks like we’re ready. Caleb, you’re on point. Bobby, watch our backs. Gabe and I will work the controller.”

 

“Billy, how’s our progress?” Andrew stood in the doorway of Bill’s office and Bill looked up from his notes to check the computer screen. 

“He’s put down a half dozen. Mostly lesser animals. He killed Ryan.”

“He what?”

Bill shook his head. “He’s organized them into packs.” He frowned at the computer and punched a few keys. “That’s odd.”

Andrew waited for a moment then prodded. “What’s odd?”

“Not responding.”

“Who isn’t?”

“None of them are responding. I’ve got clumps, Gordon and a couple other cats are out near the Ring. Winchester’s in the Ring. There’s a handful close to the barn and two more groups near the zoo. There’s more dead than I thought.”

“How many?”

Bill squinted at the screen. “At least a dozen are dead or down.” He reached for a radio. “Ash, if you’re done with your blow job, we need you down here.”

There was no answer. “Ash.” He shook his head. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Andrew left the office and grabbed the first tech to pass him. “I want someone up to the house to bring my nephew down here.”

He turned as Bill came out of the office. “I’ve called in the handlers and guards. Sent them to round the animals up and lock down the zoo.”

“You think we’re under attack?”

“You did say someone had come looking for Winchester, right?”

“It was just two men.”

“It’s probably more now. You remember how they came at Dad in Austin…or for that matter how they came for the two boys. Maybe we should have taken a lesson.”

“I didn’t go after Winchester. He came to us.” Andrew said. “I thought he’d make an excellent assassin…like Gordon.”

Bill raised an eyebrow. “Gordon still isn’t predictable, even when he’s under direct control.”

“But he did those two kills clean.”

Bill nodded. The door burst open and one of the handlers fell through, holding his bleeding thigh. “We’ve lost control. They’re attacking.”

There was a low growl and Gordon limped in, slashing at the man until he fell in bloody shreds to the floor. “Billy?” 

Bill backed up a step. “He’s hurt. In the office.” He kept his movements slow, his eyes on Gordon. Andrew moved in tandem. The just reached the door to the office when Gordon pounced.

 

“Sam?” 

“Get behind me Dean and stay out of his reach.”

“What are you doing?”

Sam was sweating under the effort to not succumb to the pain building in his head and holding up the barrier…he’d done it before to protect himself…without thinking, without knowing what he was doing. This time, he’d wished it and it came.

“I’m trying to exorcise this bastard.”

“It’s not enough.” Dean said, his hand on Sam’s back.

“It’s a start.” 

“It will make him savage.”

“He’s already savage, Dean. He’s a fucking demon. He’s **THE** fucking demon.”

Sam felt Dean shiver behind him. “He’s what?”

“That yellow eyed fuck killed out mother Dean. And in my dream he killed you. I’m not going to let that happen.”

“You can’t kill him, Sam.”

Sam shuddered, the image of both of them dead filling his mind. “If it means saving you I can.”

“No. Sam. It’s Dad.”

Sam shook his head. “Dad’s…” He adjusted his grip on the knife. The demon was circling the barrier, looking for a weakness. Sam shook his head again and resumed the Latin. Dean jumped from behind him.

“Not going to let you kill him Sam.”

“Dean, get the fuck out of the way!” Sam lunged forward, just as John’s body whirled toward Dean, his eyes gone black, his claws extended. “Dean!”

Giant claws raked over Dean’s stomach and he staggered backward, holding the wound and looking surprised. Then John lurched and Sam came to a screeching halt beside Dean, the book dropped, the knife forgotten as he pulled Dean to him. 

The ground rumbled as John’s body collapsed, two tranquilizer darts sticking out of his thigh. It was just like his dream, only neither of them was dead. “Dean?”

Dean smiled weakly. “Now you can finish your damn exorcism.”

Sam shook his head. “After I take care of you.”

“I’m fine…just a scratch…three scratches. Deep scratches…but I’m fine.” 

“No, Dean…you’re hurt. He’s out. I’ll come back for him.”

Dean took a deep breath and sat up. “Now.”

“It’ll only come back.” Sam said softly, his bravado slipping. 

“What?”

“The demon. It wants me. It came after me at the church. It…has something to do with the dreams…and other stuff.”

“So it comes back. We’ll deal with it then. For now, I want my father back.”

“There’s still the bear.”

Dean conceded that point. “So get the bear too.”

Sam bit his lip. “I don’t know if a regular exorcism will do it.”

“Try.”

Sam nodded and picked the book back up, then rummaged in his bag for the bottle of holy water. His father’s body convulsed as he sprinkled it with the water and started to recite the Latin short form. 

 

Gabe worked the controller to guide two more of the creatures into a large cage in the barn while his father examined the circle in the center of the floor. “They’ve done some dark stuff here.”

“I’ve got another one just a few hundred yards from here.” Gabe said, looking up from the controller and pointing. 

“The clinic is that way.” Caleb said. Together they trotted in that direction. The dot stopped moving, then altered course and came their way. 

“Gordon.”

Gabe looked up. He’d lost his animal skin somewhere along the way, but not the claws. He was covered in blood. “He’s not responding.” Gabe said. “I’m sending commands to go to the barn and he’s not moving.”

“He’s not attacking either.” Caleb said. 

Gabe shook his head. “Doesn’t make sense.”

Suddenly, Gordon cocked his head and then hissed, charging toward them, then roaring past to tackle a man in a lab coat, eviscerating him in seconds. When he looked up, he was licking the man’s blood from his claws.

“I’m gonna be sick.” Gabe said, turning away. 

“We can’t leave him loose.” Caleb took a step toward Gordon who moved off the corpse and squatted, as if waiting for Caleb. 

“He seems to like you.” They both turned at the sound of Ash’s voice. He too was covered with blood, coming out of the clinic. “Think you’re clever little boy? Think you’re smarter than me?” In his hands was a larger controller. 

“Give it up Ash, it’s over.” Caleb said. Beside him Gordon was growling. 

“It’s only over when everyone is dead.” Ash said. “Let’s start with you two.” He worked a control and Gordon’s growl shifted. “Then I’ll take care of the rest of your friends.”

Inside the barn they could hear the others, screaming, fighting, rattling the bars. Gordon shifted from foot to foot, his eyes skipping from Caleb to Ash and back. A shot rang out and Ash staggered back, then ducked behind the building. 

Allen came running, with Bobby behind him, but before they could follow him, Gordon took off. Ash appeared moments later, running for the barn. There was screaming and Gabe turned a little green. 

“I don’t think we want to be standing here when Gordon’s done in there.” Caleb said.

Allen nodded. “How many more?” 

Gabe looked down at the screen. “One. The others are either in the barn or dead.”

“John?” Bobby asked. 

Gabe shrugged. “One way to find out.” He pointed. “It’s a hike.”

 

John felt it the moment the demon left his body…felt it claw to stay inside, to hold on to him…felt it tear at him. The bear went more quietly in comparison, its raw fury at being stuffed inside him echoing around his head even after it was gone. 

He was far from empty though. He could feel every blade of grass under his body, the sticky mess of bear skin and blood covering him. He could feel the stitches in his neck and back…and under them, he could feel the bits of plastic and wire and metal.

He opened his eyes slowly. Sam was sitting duly beside him. Dean was sprawled in the grass nearby, his stomach bleeding. John had a vague memory of his own hand making the wound and looked down. His hands were bound inside bear claws. He lifted them trying to cut the claws off, trying to free himself. 

Sam stirred. “Dad?” He blinked. “Stop…you’re going to hurt yourself. Stop.” His hands closed over John’s and John had to blink back tears. 

“Get them off.” He grunted it and Sam nodded, looking around him for his knife, then slicing through the bindings.

John sat up shakily. His body hurt in ways and places he couldn’t understand. His broken ankle throbbed, probably broken worse than it had been. He shouldn’t even be alive. He looked at Dean.

Sam nodded. “Passed out. Just before the demon…” Sam looked like he was ready to pass out himself. 

John felt himself stiffen, felt compelled to move away from Sam. Sam gasped and turned. “Gabe?”

Gabe and Caleb were followed by Allen and Bobby. “It’s okay…he’s okay.” Sam said. Gabe nodded and released the controller. 

“You okay?” Bobby asked.

Sam shook his head. “Don’t know. Dean needs help.”

“Sam?” John reached for him, but he pulled away.

“Not yet…it…I need to…” Sam staggered to his feet, his breathing ragged. He stumbled a few feet away and fell to his knees, screaming and holding his head. John climbed to his knees to go to him, but Gabe stopped him. 

“Give him a minute.”

“He’s going to pass out.”

Gabe nodded. “And when he does, we’ll carry his tall ass back to the car and pump him full of enough sedative that he’ll actually sleep without the fucking dreams…and maybe when he wakes up he’ll have this thing under control.”

“Thing?” John watched as Sam slumped to the side, and rolled onto his back, out cold. “What’s going on with Sam?”

Gabe shook his head. “There’ll be time for that later. For now…I think we’re best served just getting the hell out of here…getting you and Dean to the nearest hospital.”

John looked up at the young man. “You know a lot more than you’re telling me.”

Gabe smiled and nodded. “I usually do.”

Caleb was working with Bobby to lift Sam. Allen was pulling a rousing Dean to his feet. Gabe held out his hand to help John up. “Do you know where we’re going?”

Gabe chuckled and nodded. “I do…though I’m told that the destination doesn’t matter as much as the journey to get there.”

John snorted. “In this case, I hope the journey is short and uneventful.” They limped out of the circle of oak trees, though John felt as though there were eyes following them. It wasn’t far to a golf cart. They stopped by the barn and Allen and Bobby ran inside, coming out with a shake of their heads. 

The clinic brought the same result. Nothing was left alive. John didn’t even argue when they lifted him out of the cart and put him in the car. Didn’t fight when they pulled into the ER. Sam was awake as they put John in the wheel chair, his eyes a little haunted, but he offered John a smile. “I’ll be in to see you in a bit.”

John thought about some of the images the demon had left behind as he watched his son pull himself together. Maybe most of the time it was about the journey. But sometimes, no matter what the journey brought, the destination was the same.


	6. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hunters deal with their injuries and the emotional fallout. Allen learns the truth about Gabe and Caleb, who take another step in their relationship and Dean's nightmares lead to Sam trying to comfort him.

The hospital had set his leg and wrist, bandaged his wounds, cleaned the mud and blood and gore from his body…and John Winchester didn’t feel any better. His hand kept rising to the back of his neck, to the stitches that hid computer chips and wires that they’d used to control him. 

The doctors were still discussing how to remove them without damaging his spinal chord. John sat in a wheelchair in the lobby waiting for Bobby and Gabe. Dean had been released hours before, and Allen and Caleb had gone to find them rooms. 

There was so much they didn’t know. 

When Bobby and Gabe finally showed up, they looked grim. “You ready?” Bobby asked and John nodded. 

“No sign of Gordon.” Bobby said as he helped John into the car. “Ash and Andrew and Bill are all dead. The girl Dean told us about was dead too.”

John nodded, sighed. He wanted to sleep, wanted to close his eyes and make the whole mess just go away. He wanted to forget, to go far away from anyone he might hurt, to end it. His hand ran over the stitches again and he sighed.

When they reached the hotel, it was Bobby who helped him into his room, made sure he had his pain meds, asked him if he needed anything. “I just need to be alone.” John responded, downing two pills without water.

It was wrong, he knew, to feel like this…after everything he’d told Sam…but it was different this time. It wasn’t any old demon, it was the bastard he’d been hunting since Sam was 6 months old. It had been inside him, it had used him. When he closed his eyes, he could still see Sam the way the demon had…the glow inside him, the raw power unleashed when the demon’s hold on him had been released.

Maybe Sam didn’t understand it all just yet, but John had seen it all, from the blood that the bastard had fed him to Mary’s death…the demon hadn’t been ready for Sam to come into the power, hadn’t expected it…but he tasted it…felt it…and it had come for him…just as it had come for Mary.

 

“So, you going to tell me what’s going on between you and my son?”

Caleb looked up from the gun he was cleaning. Allen’s face was pale, and he’d lost a lot of blood, but he was going to be fine. That didn’t mean Caleb was comfortable with the current arrangements. Sam and Dean were bedded down in one room, with Bobby and John in another, which left Gabe and Caleb sharing with Allen. “No offense, Allen, but maybe that’s a conversation you should have with Gabe.”

“He isn’t here. You are.”

Caleb sighed and put down the cloth to look his friend in the eye. “I can go get him, if you’re gung ho to have this talk right now.”

“I saw the way you touched him.”

Caleb shook his head and stood. “I’m not talking about this.”

“So, there is something going on.”

Caleb stopped at the door and half turned. “I care about Gabe. I care a lot. Is that what you want to hear?”

Allen sighed and Caleb watched him shift around looking for a more comfortable position. “He’s my son.”

Caleb nodded. “And he’s eighteen, and he’s amazing…I’m going to go see if I can get something for dinner.” He didn’t wait for a response, and he sighed once the door was closed. He smiled when he saw Gabe loping toward him, a bag from the pharmacy in his hands.

“Hey, how’s the patient?”

“Nosy.” Caleb said, glancing around them as Gabe got close and pulling him in for a quick kiss. “He knows.”

Gabe stiffened. “He what?”

Caleb shrugged. “Suspects at least. You should talk to him.”

“This is not a conversation I’m ready to have with my father.” Gabe chewed on his lip. “What did you tell him?”

Caleb cupped a hand to Gabe’s cheek. “I told him that I care about you…and that he should ask you if he wants to know more.”

Gabe pouted a little. “Gee thanks…”

Caleb smiled. “I can come in with you, if you want.”

Gabe shook his head, his eyes sparkling as he settled one hand around Caleb’s neck, his thumb against the heartbeat in the big vein. “I’m a big boy.”

“Don’t I know it.” Caleb said softly. “I’m going to see about getting us some dinner.”

“Yeah, good. I’ll go talk to my father.” Gabe watched Caleb go, regretting thinking they could share a room with his father. He was longing to show Caleb how he really felt about the events of the last few days…and he had the tools to do it with too.

Instead, he let himself into the room, shaking the bag with it’s pills. “Want one now?”

Allen shook his head. “I want to talk.”

Gabe sighed and nodded. “Caleb said you might.”

“Yeah…about Caleb—“

Gabe raised his hands. He knew the best way to deal with this was head on. “Yeah, Caleb.” He looked his father in the eye. “So, here’s the thing, Dad. Caleb and I are…together. Like a couple.”

Allen crossed his arms. “Like a couple?”

Gabe sighed. “Together.”

“You’re having sex?” Allen asked and Gabe flushed bright red.

“God! Dad…I was trying to make this easy.” Gabe paced away. “I’m 18. And it isn’t his fault.”

“I wasn’t laying blame, Gabe.”

Gabe shook his head, pacing around the small room. “He—I—damn this hard.”

“Are you in love with him?”

Gabe deflated, collapsing into a chair. “I’m not sure? I mean…I care about him…you know? But…we’re…just kind of taking things as they come. Okay?”

Allen nodded. “Okay. You’re being careful?”

Gabe rolled his eyes, but nodded. “I don’t mean just the sex, Gabe. If this is going to be your first serious relationship, I don’t want to see you get hurt. He is older than you.”

“So…you aren’t angry?” Gabe dared a look, but his father’s face was open, jovial even.

“I’ve always known you wouldn’t be a traditional kid, Gabe. If Caleb makes you happy, that makes me happy.”

Gabe exhaled slowly and nodded. “He does. He really does.”

Allen swung his feet over the side of the bed and stood slowly. “I’m going to bunk with Bobby and John, I think. Give you two some space. I think I made him nervous.”

“Caleb respects you. Right from the start he’s been worried about how you would take this.” Gabe said.

“As he should be. I reserve the right to be intimidating when my boy is dating.”

Gabe rolled his eyes and moved to help his father gather his things. “Right…don’t go getting ahead of yourself. I didn’t say you were intimidating. You’re not John Winchester.”

 

Sam sat in the overstuffed chair in the corner of the room. He had the blinds drawn, the lights off, his body crammed as tightly into the chair as he could manage, his knees bent and tucked in against his chest, his head resting on his knees, his eyes locked on the sleeping form of his brother.

It was over.

The men responsible for what happened to Dean were dead. The damn demon sent back to hell for the time being. 

Sam’s head swam with images from the dreams that came whenever he closed his eyes. His body hummed with power he didn’t understand. He was almost afraid to move. Almost.

He chewed on the tip of his thumb…the fingernail was already chewed down and now he was just biting on dead skin. He had discovered a few things. He was still sorting through them, when he could think past the images and feelings.

This wasn’t something the demon had done to him. The demon had bottled it up, walled it off. The exorcism had pulled that wall down. This had something to do with his mother…something he couldn’t place.

Dean stirred, whimpered and shifted. Sam could pick out each mark on his body, even in the dark. He watched Dean’s face tense up, his chest rise and fall. Slowly, he loosened his body, lowered his feet. He moved across the space and laid down beside Dean…not touching him, but close. Dean’s body relaxed and he turned toward Sam.

Sam breathed in, the cool smell of the anti-biotic ointment on Dean’s stomach wounds, the vague remnants of cilantro from the burrito he insisted on eating before he would go to sleep…the warm, familiar scent of Dean. He closed his eyes and tried to hold that scent and all that it meant while he let his exhaustion pull him toward sleep.

 

“Gabe?” Caleb opened the door slowly. “Everyone’s in John’s room…well, everyone but Sam and Dean.”

The room was dim, only the corner light on, shining off of Gabe’s blonde hair. Gabe’s eyes tracked him as he entered the room and Caleb definitely got the feeling that things had changed. “I left dinner over there.”

“Not interested in dinner.” Gabe said, his voice giving Caleb a hint of what Gabe was interested in.

The shadows moved and Gabe’s hand came up, one finger crooked through the buckle of the collar. The black leather dangled there in the space between them. Caleb stared at it for a long time, then lifted his eyes to meet Gabe’s.

“What about your father?”

“He’s moved in with Bobby and John.”

Caleb nodded, turning away only to hang the “Do Not Disturb” sign and throw the lock on the door. “You’re still angry.” There was no challenge in the words, just a simple observation of the facts. He crossed to stand in front of Gabe, knowing that this might be the moment that pushed them further into this thing…past simple games and scenes…this was the first time Gabe was bringing something that happened outside of the bedroom into the bedroom.

Gabe didn’t answer, just waited. He sat motionless and poised, like someone far older…like someone entirely comfortable with what he was asking. Caleb took a deep breath and eased to his knees in front of him, bowing his head and waiting.

He expected to feel the collar slide around his neck, but instead it was Gabe’s hand, on the top of his head, caressing, soft. He slid it down to Caleb’s chin and lifted his face. “Tell me you want this?” There was the tiniest bit of uncertainty in his voice. 

“You know I do, Gabe.” Caleb answered softly.

Gabe shook his head lightly. “Not…just…stealing moments in motel rooms, Caleb…that’s not enough.”

“What are you asking?” Caleb felt his stomach lurch. He wanted Gabe, that much he was sure of…he licked his lips and waited.

Gabe sighed. “I asked you not to go in without backup. You could have been killed.”

Caleb relaxed a little. This he understood. “I couldn’t let Dean go in alone.”

Gabe’s eyes closed. “I know,” he said after a few minutes. “I was scared. I didn’t like it.”

Caleb lifted his chin. “I know, Gabe.” 

Gabe nodded and Caleb felt the collar slide around his neck, felt the buckle cold against his skin. His perception changed, that shift of awareness that always came with the collar. Gabe’s hand rested on the back of his head, drawing him forward. His kiss was gentle, though Caleb knew from experience that wouldn’t last.

Part of Gabe needed the release of the control, just as Caleb needed the release of letting that control go. “Take off the clothes and get on the bed, on your knees.”

Caleb stood, pulling at his clothes and getting out of them as fast as he could. When he was naked he looked for Gabe, but his back was turned, his hands fussing with something in his bag. Caleb moved onto the bed, on his knees facing the headboard. That was when he noticed that Gabe had been busy in his absence.

“You remember your word.” Gabe said as he came to the head of the bed and Caleb nodded reflexively. “Say it.”

“Fiddle.” Caleb said, his eyes widening as he saw what was in Gabe’s hands. The restraints he had expected when he saw the hook in the headboard. It was something they’d talked about…about how the sight of them turned Gabe on…how they symbolized the lose of power, maybe more so than the collar…Caleb had issues with handcuffs and rope, but these were leather cuffs, a good three inches thick and padded. 

There was a brief thrill of panic in his heart and he almost pulled back when Gabe reached for his wrist with the first one. Gabe’s eyes met his, searching, asking without words. Caleb took a deep breath and nodded and Gabe set about buckling them around his wrists and then linking them together.

Before he raised the joined hands to the hook, Gabe leaned in and kissed him…focused and almost hard, drawing Caleb’s attention away from his hands. “You okay?” Gabe asked softly and Caleb nodded again, his eyes darting to the other item that had come with the restraints. Gabe looked at it too, his eyes sparkling. Slowly he hooked the restraints to the hook and lifted the new toy.

Like the cuffs, it was black leather, about as wide as Gabe’s palm, with a wooden handle that fit so snuggly in Gabe’s hand it could have been carved to order. Gabe held it up, examining it and Caleb’s reaction to it.

“I bought it when we were in Houston…but we haven’t had the chance to try it out.” Gabe brought the flat surface of the paddle in contact with Caleb’s shoulder and stroked it down over his back, over the round of his ass where he stopped, holding it there. “I thought we’d go easy at first.” 

Caleb jumped with the first blow, though it was little more than a tap. Gabe was new to this part. He’d come to Caleb at the motel outside of Houston with research and a list of things that he’d found, all shy and almost embarrassed. The kid was good at observing what each of the items on his list did to Caleb, even though he’d tried hard to keep on an even keel.

The second blow was harder. Caleb was starting to harden, and Gabe’s free hand was there between his legs, wrapped around his cock. The introduction of the cock ring wasn’t unexpected…Gabe had come to love the control it gave him. He snapped it around Caleb, then kissed a line up his back. “I have one more surprise.”

There was cold and wet, a finger inserted into him…then it was withdrawn and something thicker and longer entered him. Gabe moved it, angled it, pressed it in until Caleb responded with an involuntary moan as it pressed against his prostate. Then it started to vibrate. Caleb’s dick strained against the cock ring immediately and he found himself trembling as the paddle caressed his skin. 

The paddle whooshed in the air when Gabe swung it, and it connected with his left ass cheek solid, stinging…enough to bring tears to his eyes. He exhaled and waited for the next one. Just as he started to relax, it came, on the same cheek, making him lurch forward, dragging his cock against the sheets.

Gabe pulled him back and the vibration in his ass increased. “Fuck.” Caleb breathed. The next two blows were in quick succession to the right side, almost off on his hip. Then Gabe’s tongue laved over the stinging skin. It was hot, and soothing…until the next blow hit wet skin. Gabe yelled and lurched forward, then back as the tip of his over-hard cock pressed into the bed and he saw stars.

The vibrations turned up again and Caleb bit his tongue to keep from yelling out. There was another blow, and the plug in his ass was pressed harder into him. “Fuck!” He was really starting to shake now…his skin burned, he was gasping for air. It was too much.

The bed moved and he could feel Gabe’s body behind him, over him, pressed against his back, heat and sting and need pouring out of him as the plug came loose and was replaced with Gabe’s cock, hard and deep and Caleb shook his head as Gabe pushed in and pulled out, only to slam in hard again. 

Gabe’s hands held his hips, his fingers digging into Caleb’s skin as he fucked into him, pushing them closer to the headboard. Gabe’s pace was brutal, his cock plunging fast and banging Caleb’s sweet spot until he was sure he was going to black out or come despite the fucking cock ring…and when Gabe came, Caleb could feel it burn into him, oozing out of him, around Gabe as he withdrew, panting.

Then, he was gone and Caleb couldn’t feel him or see him. He didn’t move, his knees spread wide, his ass oozing come, his hands bound to the headboard. Gabe was still panting when he came to the side of the bed, his hand sliding over Caleb’s sweat slicked back. “I like you like this, Caleb.” Gabe whispered. “Your ass is all red, and my come is all over it…and you look totally fucked.” His words made Caleb shiver…made him aware he was still hard…still caged…and Gabe’s kiss was possessive and claiming. “All for me…” His hand slid down Caleb’s chest, belly…wiggled through pubic hair…wrapped around his cock…

“Please.” Caleb gasped, closing his eyes.

Gabe moved, shifted, then his mouth closed over the tip of Caleb’s cock, sucking until Gabe whimpered. “God…please…Gabe…”

The suction never let up, but the pressure did, the cock ring released and with it, Caleb’s orgasm, spilling into Gabe’s mouth as Caleb groaned. Then Gabe was slithering up under him, pulling his mouth down into a kiss filled with come. His hands were lifted up and off the hook, but Gabe made no move to remove the restraints, just moved them to the other bed and laying them down to sleep. 

As Gabe spooned up around him, drawing him close and murmuring softly, Caleb sighed and closed his eyes, not really willing to think about how safe he could feel like this, in the arms of an eighteen year old boy. 

 

Sam’s first thought when he woke was that he hadn’t dreamed…there had been no images of people dying and demons possessing and coming disasters. He’d curled up beside Dean and slept…really slept. It gave him a feeling of control he hadn’t felt since he couldn’t remember when.

His next thought though was that he was alone in the bed, and the spot where Dean had been was cold, so he’d been gone a while. He heard a whimper, and lifted up, bracing his elbow on the bed to look around the room. At first he didn’t see him, the shadows and the battered dresser hiding him, but he was whispering to himself there in the corner.

“Dean?”

Now that he knew where he was, Sam could see Dean was shaking, shivering, naked and all curled in on himself. His heart stopped, remembering the way he’d shut down before, the way he’d been when their father had carried him up from the creek in the rain. In the last months Dean had been… _Dean_ …so much so that Sam wasn’t sure he could handle it if he regressed again.

He pulled the blanket aside and stood, padding softly toward his brother. “Dean?”

This time Dean stiffened, his whole body stilling, his face rising from the pillow of his folded arms. It was too dark to see his eyes, but his expression was filled with fear. Sam licked his lips and squatted down beside him, not touching. “You okay, Dean?”

_Nothing. No One. Alone._

Dean didn’t say it, but Sam felt it. Like it was there in the air between them. 

“Dreams.” Dean finally breathed through clenched teeth. 

“Memories?” Dean’s head dropped back to his arms, his body resuming its shaking. “Dean?” Sam reached a hand out tentatively, his stomach churning. He touched the top of Dean’s head and recoiled. He was burning up and Sam’s head was filled with the overwhelming sensation of hands and chains and beatings. The voice of Master James, the taunting of Razz and Thomas, the snap of the whip, the clanging of the cage door…the feeling of choking on a cock too big, too many, too much…

Dean sobbed and curled in tighter. Sam took a deep breath to steady himself. “Dean…” He braved a second touch, riding out the initial wave and finding a way to block the sensations away…images and sounds, feelings and smells and tastes…pushing it away, breathing through it until he could think past it. “Dean…I’m right here…stay with me.”

Dry sobs quacked through Dean as Sam lowered himself to sit, moving his legs to surround Dean and draw him into the protective circle of his arms. “Come here Dean. Can you tell me?”

He raised his head again, his eyes filled with hurt and anguish and memory as he licked his lips. “Don’t want to remember, Sammy.”

“I know, I know Dean.” Sam soothed a hand down over his brother’s head. “I know you don’t.”

Dean leaned into Sam, resting his head on his shoulder. “He made me watch.”

Somehow Sam knew he meant Ash. “I was…God Sam.” His hand fisted in Sam’s shirt. Sam’s arms tightened around him. “Fuck! Fuck!” Dean shivered and shook his head. “Make it go away….I don’t want it Sam…I don’t want…”

Sam kissed him to make the words stop, to make the panic rising in his stomach stop…the despair was too real, too deep, too fucking familiar…”Stay with me Dean. Focus on me.” Sam said, his hands moving to hold his brother’s face. “Right here.” He kissed him again, and slowly felt Dean respond. “Forget the rest, Dean.” Sam whispered it over Dean’s lips, their foreheads pressed together. “Just don’t leave me again…please don’t leave me again.”

Dean’s kiss tasted of his desperation, his need to hold on to something so that he didn’t get sucked back into the memories. It made Sam wish Ash had survived, so that he could kill him himself…so he could hold him down and fuck his ass and cut his dick off and then tie him down for his animals to rip apart. 

The dresser rattled beside them and Sam realized his anger was ratcheting out of control. With a deep breath, he forced his attention back to Dean who was trying to pull Sam’s shirt up and off now. “Shh…easy Dean…I’ve got it.” 

Sam pulled the shirt off and tossed it aside, and Dean was instantly on top of him, knocking him over backward as his mouth traveled over Sam’s chest. “Dean…slow…there’s no hurry…” Dean climbed up Sam until he could reach his mouth, no less desperate, his hands holding Sam’s head as his tongue sought out Sam’s. 

“Touch me Sammy…” Dean’s hands slid down Sam’s arms and dragged his hands up to rub over Dean’s chest. “Touch me.” Dean’s ass rubbed over Sam’s cock and all the energy in his body rushed to the spot. Dean’s eyes were wild with need, eating into Sam. “Want to fuck you Sammy.” Dean whispered fervently. “Can I? God Sammy…need to feel you…”

Dean pulled away, his hands dragging Sam’s shorts down and off. He spit in one hand and rubbed it onto his dick, nudging Sam’s legs apart with the other. Sam tried to keep up, tried to ease the frantic pace, but Dean was already ahead of him, already kneeling between his legs, already pressing in…and Sam exhaled and just worked on not tensing up while Dean pushed in and got a rhythm started…then he reached for Dean, drawing him down to kiss away the litany of words falling from his lips… _make it go away….Sammy….god, Sammy…please…don’t want to know…fuck…fuck…please…Sammy_.

Sam tilted his hips into Dean’s thrust and whispered again and again back to him… _right here, Dean…forget it all…come back to me…stay with me…right here Dean_.

His come was hot and thick…but Dean’s frantic whispering hadn’t ended…just changed tone and Dean was sliding out, sliding up, guiding Sam’s cock toward his own hole, using his come to lube it and moaning loud as he sank down onto Sam. _fuck me Sam…need you…need you…make it go away…please Sammy…please_.

Sam arched his back and thrust up, then grabbed his brother’s hips and rolled them so that Dean’s back was on the floor, his knees bent, and Sam could snap in hard against Dean’s prostate until Dean’s fevered whispers lost all coherency and his cock was rigid and oozing a clear liquid and he was screaming and Sam was coming. 

Sam saw stars, collapsing forward onto Dean while they both panted…Sam recovered first though and pulled out and away, rolling clear before getting to his feet and going to the bathroom for a washcloth. Dean was quiet, but he let Sam clean him up and guide him back to the bed where Sam checked his bandages and gave him one of each of his pills with a glass of water. As Sam pulled the blankets up around Dean, Dean snorted.

“What?” Sam asked, tossing the washcloth across the room.

“You…all Mommy Sam. You going to kiss me on the forehead too?”

Sam looked at him, the red rimmed eyes, and cheeks still damp…”I might, you know, if you need it.” Sam said, circling the bed. He slid in beside Dean who immediately rolled toward him. “Dean, you have stitches in your stomach.”

“Yeah, but that rug burned my back.” Dean responded sleepily, putting his head on Sam’s pillow. 

“Next time you need to have sex after a crying jag, do it in a bed then.” Sam said, shaking his head and settling in.

Dean lifted his head and looked at Sam a little strangely. “Was I crying?”

He looked young and vulnerable there looking down at Sam. “You said you had dreams…memories.”

Dean frowned. “It’s all blurry.”

Sam propped himself up on his elbows. “You don’t remember?”

“It was ugly…and I was afraid…but it’s all blurry….does it matter?”

Sam kissed him lightly and laid back down, pulling Dean with him. “No Dean. It doesn’t matter at all.”


End file.
